Carpano Antica Formula sweet vermouth. There are two main classifications of vermouths (sweet and dry), with sweet vermouth being a key ingredient in the triad for the delicious Negroni. This is THE bottle that changed my entire conception of vermouth – it’s just that good. If you’ve ever had any negative experiences or ideas about vermouth, please just give Carpano Antica a chance and see if you don’t change your mind.

In short, vermouth is an aromatized fortified wine, which means it’s a wine that has aromatic flavors infused from herbs/roots/spices/botanicals/etc (aromatized) along with added alcohol (fortified). Vermouths usually clock in at around 15-20%, so just slightly higher than a typical wine. If you get nothing else from this post, then just know that since vermouths are essentially wine, VERMOUTHS DO GO BAD. I definitely learned this the hard way and didn’t even realize it until years later (all the while thinking that vermouths were just the most terrible things ever).

Once open, store your vermouths in the fridge tightly closed, and it should be good for about a month or so. Depending on the vermouth and composition (sweet vermouths tend to save better than drier ones), and your storage details (temperature, seal, etc), it may keep longer so just make sure to take note of a fresh bottle and use your nose&mouth to judge. You probably won’t get sick from an oxidized bottle, but you really don’t want your drink tasting like pungent metallic vinegar, do you? Cheers!