The classic aperitif: Vermouth

Long before Americans were mixing, muddling, and shaking cocktails, their European forebears were concocting true aperitifs with what has become a classic cocktail ingredient - vermouth. This peerless appetite enhancer dates back thousands of years, to the time just after wine was first fermented. Although the Greeks and the Romans sipped vermouth, it wasn't until Antonio Benedetto Carpano of Turin came along in the 16th century that vermouth was produced commercially.

Like bitters, vermouth was first billed as a medicinal cure-all. In fact, Esquire magazine - in its 1956 plea for the resurgence and respect of vermouth by Martini drinkers - recalled a bit of history that underscored this. Its authors told the tale of how a small band of crooks who went about plundering the homes of the dead and dying during the deadly plague of Toulouse in 1720. The looters immunized themselves against the disease by drinking a blend of "... the tops of sea and Roman wormwood, a touch of rosemary, sage, mint, and rue, two ounces of lavender flowers ... cinnamon, clove, camphor ... a gallon of wine...." It was called the "Wine of the Four Thieves," but by any other name it's homemade vermouth.

Rumored still to be infused with about 50 herbs and miscellaneous flavorings, vermouth - both the sweet and the dry - is made from a white wine base of insignificant quality. After a distillation that lasts anywhere from six months to four years, depending on the scruples and methods of the maker, vermouth is about 18 to 20 percent alcohol, with the rest of the ingredients being sugar, caramel, and water.

Vermouths are aromatized and fortified before they are bottled. Fortification - simply the addition of alcohol to the fermentation - occurs in most every aperitif wine. The alcohol used is a neutral grape distillation, with no hint of brandy flavorings. Aromatizing is the blending of fortified wine with extracts of various herbs, roots, and spices such as wormwood, vanilla, and gentian.

Wine-based aperitifs, with their rife herbs, taste nothing like what most of us consider wine. In fact, they're considered wine only because they are fermented from grapes, though the process is far different from that of making table wine or vile wine coolers. The herbs are what make these aperitifs digestive tonics that clear the palate.

Vermouths are the most common variety of aperitif wines enjoyed internationally. In this country, though, we merely serve them as an aside to gin and bourbon. In Europe, vermouth is the equivalent of the United States' Martini.

But sweet and dry vermouths are the Wonder Bread of aperitif wines. They're quite enjoyable, though their flavors are somewhat bland and characterless when compared with other aperitifs. Throughout Europe, there are hundreds of other interesting aperitif wines to be enjoyed. Typically, they are more bitter than vermouth, though produced in much the same way. Brands to try are Amer Picon, Byrrh, Dubbonet, Suze.

These venerable aperitifs are often overlooked. Those who favor them have usually been privy to an elder gifted in mixing and serving them. Although they can be sipped neat, you may wish to start by merely mixing the aperitif with soda water in a tall, chilled glass filled with ice. A late morning or early afternoon on which you're suffering from indigestion may prove the ideal time to try one of these bitters. By law, vermouth labels cannot state any medicinal value. But it is interesting how some pharmacies still shelve them, along with other bitters. Even during Prohibition many were considered medicinal and therefore legal in the United States. Personally, I've always preferred the taste of vermouth or a similar aperitif to Pepto-Bismol.