Vermouth
Vermouth is an aromatised wine: at least 75% wine, with alcohol added and a flavour that has to come from wormwood, bottled between 14.5% and 22% ABV and usually at 15 to 18%. It comes in two main styles, sweet red and dry white, and sets the sweetness and herbal edge of a stirred drink. Once opened it keeps like wine, not like gin.
Quick Facts
Cool and dark while sealed. After opening, stoppered and chilled, like an open white.
Contains: sulphites.
About Vermouth
Vermouth is wine with wormwood in it
The law defines it precisely. Vermouth is an aromatised wine to which alcohol has been added and whose characteristic taste comes from a species of Artemisia, the wormwood genus. Wine must make up at least three quarters of the volume, and the finished strength must lie between 14.5% and 22% ABV. Most bottles land at 15 to 18%.
Without wormwood at the centre, the bottle is some other aromatised wine. One flavoured mainly with cinchona bark is a quinquina, not a vermouth, even when the two are used in the same drinks.
Sweet and dry are label terms with numbers behind them
The sweetness words on an aromatised wine are fixed in law: extra-dry means under 30g of sugar per litre, dry under 50, sweet 130 or more, with semi-dry and semi-sweet between. A red sweet vermouth usually sits in the sweet band and a pale dry vermouth in the dry one, but the label decides, not the colour.
Vermouth styles side by side
Sweet (rosso)
- Colour
- Red to amber
- Sugar where labelled
- 130g/L or more
- Usual strength
- 15 to 18% ABV
- Typical partners
- Whiskey, gin, red bitters
- Once opened
- Three or four weeks in the fridge
Dry
- Colour
- Pale straw
- Sugar where labelled
- Under 50g/L
- Usual strength
- 15 to 18% ABV
- Typical partners
- Gin, vodka, fino sherry
- Once opened
- Three or four weeks in the fridge
Extra-dry
- Colour
- Pale straw
- Sugar where labelled
- Under 30g/L
- Usual strength
- 15 to 18% ABV
- Typical partners
- The driest gin drinks
- Once opened
- Three or four weeks in the fridge
Bianco or blanc
- Colour
- Pale gold
- Sugar where labelled
- No band of its own; usually sweeter than dry
- Usual strength
- 15 to 18% ABV
- Typical partners
- Spritzes, lighter stirred drinks
- Once opened
- Three or four weeks in the fridge
| Style | Colour | Sugar where labelled | Usual strength | Typical partners | Once opened |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweet (rosso) | Red to amber | 130g/L or more | 15 to 18% ABV | Whiskey, gin, red bitters | Three or four weeks in the fridge |
| Dry | Pale straw | Under 50g/L | 15 to 18% ABV | Gin, vodka, fino sherry | Three or four weeks in the fridge |
| Extra-dry | Pale straw | Under 30g/L | 15 to 18% ABV | The driest gin drinks | Three or four weeks in the fridge |
| Bianco or blanc | Pale gold | No band of its own; usually sweeter than dry | 15 to 18% ABV | Spritzes, lighter stirred drinks | Three or four weeks in the fridge |
An open bottle runs on a wine's clock
Because most of the bottle is wine, air starts to change it the moment the seal breaks. The fresh fruit and herbal top notes go first and the sugar outlasts them, so an old bottle tastes flat and stewed rather than plainly spoiled. Stoppered and chilled it holds for three or four weeks; on a warm shelf it tires much sooner.
The practical answer is size. A half bottle finished inside a month makes better drinks than a full one still being poured from in spring.
It is also a drink on its own
Served cold over ice with a twist, either style is a complete aperitif at about a third of gin's strength. It is also how to learn how sweet, how bitter and how fresh your own bottle is before it goes into anything else.
Using Vermouth
Usage
A modifier in stirred drinks rather than a base: sweet vermouth beside whiskey, gin and the red bitters, dry vermouth beside gin, vodka and dry sherry. Chilled, on ice, with citrus peel, it is also an aperitif in its own right, at less than half the strength of the gin beside it.
Pro Tip
Taste a cold splash straight from the bottle first. Flat or faintly sour neat means flat or faintly sour in the finished drink, whatever else goes in.
Top Tips
- Mark the opening date on the bottle. Vermouth fades slowly, and nothing tells you when it has gone.
- Buy a half bottle if you only make the odd drink; a full one outlives its freshness.
- Read the sweetness word on the label: dry has to mean under 50g/L of sugar.
Production Method
Wine makes up at least three quarters of the bottle. It is flavoured with botanicals that must include a species of Artemisia, the wormwood genus, sweetened to the style and brought up to between 14.5% and 22% ABV with added alcohol.
History & Context
Wines steeped with herbs long predate the word vermouth. Carpano, now part of Fratelli Branca, credits Antonio Benedetto Carpano with creating vermouth in Turin in 1786, and still reproduces a label of that date on its Antica Formula.
More to explore
Common Questions
What is vermouth?
Is vermouth a spirit or a wine?
Does vermouth need to go in the fridge once opened?
How long does an open bottle of vermouth last?
What is the difference between sweet and dry vermouth?
How strong is vermouth?
Why does vermouth contain wormwood?
Can you drink vermouth on its own?
From the Guides
Styles of vermouth
Made with Vermouth
Guide by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026