Interview, off the cuff: Sweet Red Vermouth

WHEN ASKED "what's you favorite sweet red vermouth", a mixologist will invariably respond with another question. But we usually want the most information we can get, so questions err on the side of general rather than specific.

Today, as a matter of course the mildly annoyed bartender asked if the vermouth would be drunk straight or mixed. Not dropping a note, we made it clear that neither answer could outweigh the other [though, due to circumstance, we found that one indeed did]. The following is a roughly drawn abstract of our exchange with Sean Maher, bartender/mixologist at Eastern Standard Kitchen (Kenmore Square, Boston):

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tL: "favorite sweet red vermouth"
SM: "mildly annoyed clarification"

tL: "both"
SM: "If I'm drinking it straight, probably Carpano Antico."

tL: **because our hidden intention was indeed to find out about the mixing vermouth, as our heart will always have a chilled glass for a good negroni, we paid more attention starting now: "and for mixing...?"
SM: "Probably...Dolin...or DoLAN, I don't know how to say it [we found out later that though it's listed online as do-LEEN, it's French, so...yeah. Sean was right. do-LAN, with that funny French half-commited "n" at the end. do-LA    n]."

tL: "short list of city cocktail bars. "x" uses Vya. "y" uses Cinzano. what do you think of Punt e Mes [not knowing at the time that Carpano produces it]?"
SM: "Vya's alright. it's a little too raisin-ey for me. comes out of California [news to us]. I'm sure the folks over at "y" do use Cinzano. It's good. Better than Martini [not news to us], and good for mixing. Punt e Mes... eh."

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So that was it. Carpano Antico(Italy), Dolin(France). Or so we thought. An hour or so later, long after we'd mental-noted the names to actually note later to buy and taste even later, Sean 's voice once again commandeered our ears, bellowing "My Friend," and producing a pair of stemmed shot glasses, each backed by a green glass bottle. One of the bottles bore the brand Martini y Rossi. The other, a cryptic paper label with colorless line drawings...

tL: "Is this the Carpano Antico?"

SM: "serious nod."

(thoughtful and thorough sipping)

tL: "side by side, it's like the M+R brand was flavored with hfcs and fd&c red dye #40. The Carpano has depth, layers. It tastes of raisins and clove, but there's more. Nutmeg, cinnamon. Berries! Blueberries? Goodness, there's bark. of some tree, or root. Prunes. Peppercorns. Jesus it's like leaving Plato's cave!"

SM: "This is the vermouth that all other vermouths want to be. This is the granddaddy."

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Still can recall the day when, with a friend, we chose to save a handful of euros and chose a cheaper vermouth over the "standard" M+R. After tasting, we went back to buy the M+R anyway. Little did we know we were still being awed by shadow puppets.


Carpano Antico, kids. Learn the lesson now before it's too late [this assumes the lesson "How excellent Sweet Red Vermouth is when drunk straight/ with ice and a splash of soda" has already been learned].

Now, what was that mixing vermouth again?