Vermouth Takes the Lead

This week on Into the Barchive, Dr. Blake Jones and Tim Wright give vermouth the attention it deserves.For a lot of home bartenders, vermouth becomes a question mark. You buy a bottle for one martini or Manhattan, tuck it into the fridge door, and hope it is still good the next time you need it. Or worse, it sits on the bar cart getting dusty and oxidized while the drink gets blamed when things taste off.But for most of cocktail history, vermouth was not a background player. It was often the main event.In Episode 14, Blake and Tim move beyond vermouth as a modifier and explore it as one of the foundational ingredients of classic cocktail culture. They trace its roots from fortified, aromatized medicinal wine to a key building block of pre-Prohibition drinking, then show why it still matters now, especially as the weather warms and more sessionable cocktails start to make sense again.This week’s drinks put vermouth front and center:🍊 The Old HickoryA late 19th century New Orleans classic that sits right on the line between spirit-forward and vermouth-forward drinking, combining sweet vermouth, dry vermouth, Peychaud’s bitters, orange bitters, and orange oil over ice.🌼 The ChrysanthemumA lower ABV, deeply aromatic classic made with dry vermouth, Benedictine, and absinthe, served up in a chilled coupe and finished with orange oils.Along the way, the episode explores:What vermouth actually isWhy wormwood mattersHow sweet, dry, and blanc styles differWhy vermouth must be refrigerated after openingHow vermouth helped define classic cocktail balanceWhy vermouth-forward drinks are ideal for spring, aperitif hour, and thoughtful sessionable drinkingThey also make the case that vermouth should not just be hidden inside cocktails. It can and should be tasted on its own, whether neat, over ice, or with soda or tonic, so you can understand what it actually brings to the glass.Because without vermouth, a huge part of cocktail history disappears.If you enjoy the episode, like and subscribe, leave your favorite vermouth recommendations in the comments, or email the show at [email protected] time, in honor of Women’s History Month, Into the Barchive turns to two women whose impact on cocktail history cannot be ignored: Ada Coleman of the Savoy and Audrey Saunders, a defining force in the modern cocktail renaissance.