Vermouth: let's get to know this aromatized wine

Aromatized wines: Vermouth

Not everyone knows that the historic Martini has wine as its base ingredient!
The product, in fact, if it were to reach 16% vol. would be considered an aromatized wine (whereas the alcohol content of almost all variants is 14.4).
These are special wines with an alcohol content below 21% vol., consisting primarily of wine with added alcohol, sucrose, and aromatic substances.
The aromatic wine par excellence is Vermouth (Martini is indeed similar to Vermouth), whose base consists of a wine with at least 10 degrees that must be present in the finished product by at least 75% (70% for Dry Vermouth).
Ethyl or rectified alcohol, or wine brandy, is then added to the base wine, which can then be sweetened with sucrose or concentrated must and flavored with wormwood, which in German is called Wermuth.

Vermouth is a very ancient product – the practice of flavoring wine with arthemisia absinthium dates back to the times of Hippocrates, the historic Greek physician born in 460 BC!
Red Vermouth is the result of adding caramel, which not only lends a different aromatic note but also gives the product its characteristic color.
Vermouth was originally made using Moscato di Canelli as the base wine, but today neutral-flavored white wines are preferred, often sourced from southern Italy and processed primarily in Piemonte.
The product was "born" in 1786 in Piemonte, in Torino, invented by Antonio Benedetto Carpano, who also chose its name.
Vermouth is enjoyed today as an aperitif and is used in the recipe of many cocktails and also for cooking meats.

Other aromatized wines are:

• Barolo chinato, obtained by adding China Calissaia bark and other medicinal plants to the wine. Rediscovered in the late 1990s, it is ideal as a meditation wine and digestif, but also as a pairing with chocolate-based desserts. Production is governed by Article 7 of the Barolo DOCG;
• Vino all'uovo, produced by adding egg yolk or certain substances extracted from it;
• Retsina: a Greek white or rosé wine, obtained by adding pine resin to the must during fermentation