如今，经典的鸡尾酒复兴正在如火如荼地进行，它使苦艾酒带回了它。对于鸡尾酒爱好者来说，这是一件非常好的事情。

Vermouth has been a staple bar ingredient since the cocktail era dawned in the late 19th century. In its heyday, lower-proof vermouth played a popular supporting role to stronger spirits like gin and whiskey. The classic martini (gin, dry vermouth, and bitters) and the Manhattan (whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters) are perfect examples.

苦艾酒凭借其精致的草药味，从杜松子酒上脱离了葡萄酒的边缘，使这些鸡尾酒中的威士忌软化，并且在不改变饮料的结构的情况下进行了太多（当您​​添加果汁或利口酒时很容易发生）。它打扮成明星精神而不会压倒它。简而言之，这是完美的联合主演。

苦艾酒，定义

But what exactly is vermouth? It’s a wine that’s been macerated with a garden’s worth of botanicals, barks, and herbs (like marjoram, mace, orange peel, and wormwood, orWermutin German, from which vermouth takes its name). This aromatic wine is then fortified (which means extra alcohol is added to it) with neutral grape spirits. The resulting drink is balanced and complex, with flavors that can range from sweet to herbal to bitter.

有两种基本的苦艾酒风格：干燥和白色或法国风格；和甜和红色或意大利语。地理参考表示苦艾酒的样式。尽管两种款式都是由白葡萄酒制成的，但甜苦艾酒从焦糖的添加中获得了深红色。

一般而言（每个规则都有其例外），甜美的苦艾酒（更加浓郁，更甜美，更痛苦）对抗威士忌和白兰地（Whiskey and Brandy）的勇敢，老化的烈酒。柔软的干苦艾酒更精致，并增强了杜松子酒和白色龙舌兰酒或朗姆酒等白色烈酒的植物。

背景故事

In the late 18th century, in the former kingdom of Savoy (today’s northern Italy and parts of southern and eastern France), a few clever entrepreneurs began enhancing not-so-great local wines with herbs and spices and fortifying the wine with more alcohol to preserve it. Vermouth was born.

Commercial production began in 1786, when Antonio Benedetto Carpano, a distiller in Turin, Italy, started selling his version of vermouth. Most people enjoyed it chilled as an apéritif, a European tradition that continues to this day. In 1863, Martini & Rossi (today’s titan vermouth producer), came out with its own sweet vermouth, also in Turin.

约瑟夫·诺伊利（Joseph Noilly）于1813年在法国马赛（Marseillan）开发了他的干法国风格苦艾酒。在接下来的40年中，约瑟夫的儿子路易斯（Louis）和他的姐夫克劳迪乌斯·普拉特（Claudius Prat）参与了成为全球业务的成长，今天是诺伊·普拉特（Noilly Prat）。

联合主演是重生

Given vermouth’s rich, centuries-old European legacy and its major—albeit supporting—role in the early days of American cocktail history, it’s astounding how maligned and neglected, misused and misunderstood vermouth has been over the past few decades. You might say it started with Winston Churchill, who, as legend has it, considered it sufficient to just look towards a bottle of dry vermouth when making his gin martini (instead of actually adding vermouth to his glass). And then the 1990s hit, with that decade’s unfettered enthusiasm for bland vodka cocktails. Vermouth, with its seductive aromatics, was too strong a character. Dust gathered on bottles of Noilly Prat and Martini & Rossi everywhere.

但是一切都在改变。经典的鸡尾酒文艺复兴时期已经从大城市的Speakeasy风格的酒吧转变为全国各地的客厅，这在很大程度上要归功于电视的普及狂人。人们正在将马提尼酒和曼哈顿与冰界的热情混合在一起，并学会欣赏苦艾酒的复杂性。

因此，对于您的接下来的5点钟鸡尾酒，请尝试混合标志性曼哈顿，其中苦艾酒的甜味驯服了黑麦威士忌的叮咬。或用干苦艾酒在酥脆，冷的马提尼。Either is a fitting showcase for the cocktail world’s favorite co-star.

苦艾酒专业知识

Buying
如果您每晚不混合马提尼酒，并且不打算在这个周末举行聚会，最好购买您可以找到的最小的苦艾酒，因为葡萄酒最终会在开业后氧化。

Storing
在冰箱中保持开放的瓶子，并尝试在六周内喝苦艾酒，以获得最佳风味和香气。

服务
苦艾酒是一款很棒的搅拌机，但最好欣赏其独特的味道，请直接将其饮用，冷藏在酒杯中。