VERMOUTH, THE PLEASURE OF DRINKING
Posted on November 13, 2013 by Editorial Staff
He didn’t cut a ribbon, he sipped it! In 1786, Antonio Benedetto Carpano invented the commercial model for what we know today as red vermouth, possibly even coining the term “vermuth.” The Carpano brand, Turin based, was formalized some years later by Carpano’s nephews. The red vermouths of subsequent producers, such as Cinzano and Gancia or Martini, were their own riffs on what Carpano first successfully marketed. A contemporary expression of the product that was Carpano’s original commercial vermouth is nowadays still existing. The Vermouth was made from white wine added to an infusion of herbs and spices in more than 30 varieties. It was sweetened with spirit, which he believed would be a more suitable beverage for ladies than the local red wines. Inspired by a German wine fortified with wormwood, an herb most famously used in distilling absinthe. Carpano gave bartenders a range of options in making drinks, formalizing Turin as capital of the Royal Italian Family and of aperitif!
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