Sweet Vermouth: The Rosso Style, Brands and Cocktails

Sweet vermouth is the red, bittersweet style of vermouth that started in Turin, Italy. It’s a wine flavored with wormwood and other botanicals, usually with added alcohol (Wikipedia says most vermouths are bottled at 16% to 18%), and sweet enough to soften whiskey in a Manhattan or balance Campari in a Negroni. Bottles are usually labeled rosso or “red” rather than “sweet”. This guide covers the style, the classic brands, the two cocktails it’s famous for and how to keep an open bottle fresh.

If you’re new to vermouth in general, start with our guide to vermouth, which covers the legal definition and the dry and bianco styles too.

What makes vermouth “sweet”

All vermouth is an aromatised wine: under EU Regulation 251/2014 it is at least 75% wine, flavored with substances from Artemisia (wormwood) species, may be sweetened and have alcohol added, and has an actual alcohol content of 14.5% to under 22%.

The sweet style differs in three ways:

• Sugar. Wikipedia gives a typical 10% to 15% sugar for sweet vermouths, against no more than about 4% for dry ones. EU rules reserve the word “sweet” on a label for aromatised wines with 130 grams of sugar per liter or more; “semi-sweet” covers 90 to under 130 grams.
• Color. Wikipedia describes the Italian style as red, mildly bitter and slightly sweet. Wine Spectator’s Dr. Vinny points out that most vermouth, even most red vermouth, starts from a fairly neutral white wine, so the color usually doesn’t come from red grapes.
• Bitterness. The wormwood and other bittering botanicals keep it from tasting like a dessert wine. That bitter edge is what makes it useful in cocktails.

Because it’s wine with added spirit, sweet vermouth sits in the same family as Port and Marsala; our guide to fortified wine compares their strengths and how long each keeps.

Classic sweet vermouth brands

We only state what each brand says about itself on its own website.

Brand	What the maker says	ABV (maker)
Carpano Antica Formula	Created in 1786 in Turin by Antonio Benedetto Carpano; now made by Fratelli Branca Distillerie	16.5%
Punt e Mes (Carpano)	Name dates to 1870; sweet at first, then the bitter taste of quina	Not stated
Martini Rosso	First made by Luigi Rossi in 1863	Not stated

Carpano Antica Formula

Carpano presents Antica Formula as the vermouth Antonio Benedetto Carpano created in Turin in 1786. Its product page lists white wines from Italian grapes grown in Romagna, Puglia and Sicily; vanilla from Madagascar, Papua New Guinea and Tahiti; saffron; wormwood from the Alps of Piedmont and the Aosta Valley; and burnt sugar. Carpano describes a light brown vermouth with an amber hue, led by vanilla, with dried fruit, bitter orange and cocoa notes, and gives its strength as 16.5%. It suggests serving it on the rocks.

Punt e Mes

Carpano’s story behind the name goes back to 19 April 1870. A stockbroker in the Carpano shop, discussing a share-price rise of one and a half points that day, ordered his usual Carpano vermouth with half a measure of bitter added, using the expression “Punt e Mes”. Carpano describes it as sweet at first, then bitter from quina, and suggests it straight with a slice of orange peel or in its own Punt e Mes Manhattan. In our view, it’s the bottle to try if you find standard sweet vermouth a bit sugary.

Martini Rosso

Martini says Martini Rosso was first crafted by Luigi Rossi in 1863 from a secret blend of botanicals and wines, and describes it as a sweet vermouth with a deep scarlet color and herbal notes. It suggests it with olives or salted almonds as an aperitif, or with salami, cured ham and Pecorino.

We haven’t run vermouths through a scored value method, so treat these as the classic names, not ranked picks.

Sweet vermouth cocktails (IBA recipes)

The International Bartenders Association (IBA) publishes the standard recipes. Both of these call for “sweet red vermouth”.

Manhattan

• 50 ml rye whiskey
• 20 ml sweet red vermouth
• 1 dash Angostura bitters

Add everything to a mixing glass with ice, stir well and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cocktail cherry. The IBA lists it among “The Unforgettables”.

Negroni

• 30 ml gin
• 30 ml Campari
• 30 ml sweet red vermouth

Build in a chilled old fashioned glass filled with ice and stir gently. Garnish with half an orange slice.

The Negroni has a sparkling cousin: the Negroni Sbagliato replaces the gin with Prosecco. The recipe from the Prosecco DOC consortium is in our guide to Prosecco cocktails.

Tip: In a three-ingredient drink like the Negroni, the vermouth is a third of the glass. We’d rather open a fresh, modest bottle than reach for a premium one that’s been sitting open in a warm cabinet for months.

On its own

Sweet vermouth is also an aperitif by itself. Carpano suggests Antica Formula on the rocks, and Punt e Mes straight with orange peel or with soda and a lemon slice over ice. Our pick for a first try: a short pour over ice with an orange slice before dinner.

How to store sweet vermouth

Sweet vermouth is wine, so once the bottle is open it starts to lose its freshness.

• Fridge after opening. Dr. Vinny says it’s ideal to refrigerate vermouth, and that an open bottle can stay fresh for up to a few months that way.
• Cabinet storage is a compromise. In a cool, dark cabinet he expects oxidation and fading of the fresh herbal flavors after a couple of weeks. Wikipedia reports the common advice to drink an open bottle within one to three months.
• Recork it tightly and keep it away from heat and light.

Our chart of how long wine lasts after opening puts this next to Port, Sherry and table wine. If a bottle is past its best for cocktails, it can still go into a pan: our guide to the best red wine for cooking covers red vermouth as a stand-in for red wine, with the note that it’s sweeter.

How to choose a bottle

• Look for rosso, red or Italian vermouth. Few red vermouths print “sweet” on the label.
• Decide how bitter you want it. A standard rosso is the safe choice for a classic Manhattan; a more bitter vermouth such as Punt e Mes gives a sharper drink.
• Buy a size you’ll finish. In our view, a half bottle makes sense if you only mix a Negroni now and then.

Wine is for adults of legal drinking age (21 in the US). Please drink responsibly.