So who hasn’t thought at one point or another that a good mixed drink might be just the thing to save a bad day.  If you are a fan of a nigroni, or a manhattan, or a martini you’ve had a version of vermouth, one of a category of wines that are aromatised. Probably as old as wine making itself, aromatised wines have had a very long history around the Mediterranean though “Vermouth” is a name claimed by the Italians, or possibly more correctly the French, in the 1700’s for a version of a German recipe which used wormwood or ‘wermut’ and other herbs added to white wine to create a medicinal tonic.  Local wines were steeped or infused with unique blends of up to 100 herbs, flowers, and botanicals (including wormwood) to help inspire hunger, settle stomachs, ease digestion, and as a panacea for a myriad of 18th century diseases.  These family recipes and their herb blends still to this day are closely held secrets, but the same basic recipe holds true whether you are tasting a
French, Italian, or a California vermouth. We use them as a mixer here, but drinking a high quality vermouth be it sweet (which have a lot of sweet orange, slight bitter notes, and a load of cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and carmel notes) or dry versions (lemon, lime, more floral qualities, but with a distinctly more bitter finish) are terrific just on their own or with a little club soda and a citrus twist. Punt a Mes and Vya are my two favorite producers of really high quality vermouths.

A far more rare version of aromatised wine comes from the Piedmonte region in Italy.  It is called ‘Chinato’, and is distinguished from a vermouth by the presence of quinine (so called ‘china’ in Italian) which is the unique flavor associated with tonic water.  The most sought after Chinatos come
from the town of Barolo, where they use the much venerated wine from this village as their base wine.  The most famous and original of these comes from Cappellano of Barolo, whose grandfather was the village pharmacist and created the first Chinato.  The Cappellano Chinato is not an inexpensive  bottle, but it will last forever and may just be the most unusual and delicious thing you have ever tried.  Think of a tootsie roll completely melted in a barq’s rootbeer, then loaded with hints of orange, lime, thyme, rosemary, sage, roses and then the bittersweet note of tonic all whirred up together.  This is a wine that just tastes alive in your mouth, and will change what you think about a digestif.  Want a white version?  There is a new producer named Vergano who is now making a white
version of Chinato in the Piedmonte, called Luli.  Instead of using Barolo, he is using moscato wine as a base then blends 30 herbs and botanticals to infuse flavor.  It is less intense and a touch sweeter than more traditional Chinatos but still has incredible floral aromatics, lots of kaffir lime, peaches, kumquat, ginger, thyme flowers, basil, jasmine, and hibiscus flavors.

Just remember these ‘aromatised’ wines were created to be a health tool…so drink to your health.

WHERE TO FIND:

Cappellano Chinato – Liner and Elson – $75 ish www.linerandelson.com

Luli – Liner and Elson – $45 ish. wwwlinerandelson.com