Vermouth di Torino explained

A set of rules written into Italian law on 22 March 2017, overseen since 2019 by the Consorzio del Vermouth di Torino. The main ones:

• Made and bottled in Piedmont, from Italian wine.
• Alcohol between 16% and 22% ABV.
• The principal botanical is wormwood — Artemisia absinthium or Artemisia pontica — grown or harvested in Piedmont, at a minimum of 0.5 g of dried flowering tops per litre.
• Sweetened only with sugar, grape must, caramelised sugar or honey; coloured only with caramel.
• Sugar categories: Extra Dry under 30 g/L, Dry under 50 g/L, Dolce (sweet) 130 g/L and above.

Ordinary "vermouth" can be made anywhere in the world from any wine and any botanicals. Vermouth di Torino cannot.

Superiore is the stricter tier: at least 17% ABV, at least 50% Piedmontese wine, and botanicals beyond the wormwood also grown or harvested in Piedmont. It is the closest the category comes to a vermouth that is Piedmontese from vine to bottle.

Four, by colour. Rosso (red) is the classic: amber-to-garnet, bittersweet, built on wormwood, warm spices and often a touch of caramel — the style used in a Negroni and in the Singapore Spritz. Bianco (white) runs from pale straw to amber and is usually sweeter and gentler. Ambrato (amber) sits between the two. Rosato (rosé) is the rarest, made on a rosé or lightly tinted base. Within each colour, the Extra Dry, Dry and Dolce sugar levels apply.

A red Vermouth di Torino opens with red fruit and sweetness from the wine and sugar, then turns to wormwood bitterness, warm spice and alpine herbs on the finish. That bitter-sweet tension is why it works both neat over ice and lengthened with sparkling wine in a spritz. Served cold, it drinks like an aromatic, fortified red wine rather than a spirit.

Alfredo Soria Vermouth di Torino Rosso is made in Canelli, in the province of Asti, at the heart of the Piedmont production area, to the recipe of a firm founded there on 16 March 1934 and revived by Alfredo's great-granddaughter. It is bottled at 16% ABV on a base that is about 75% wine — Piemonte Cortese DOC and Moscato d'Asti DOCG, roughly two parts to one — with two Piedmontese wormwoods, Artemisia gentile and Artemisia romana, and local roots, barks and citrus peels. The Moscato supplies much of the sweetness, so it is wine-led rather than sugar-led. The first release is the Heritage Edition, in 500 ml bottles. Read the Alfredo Soria story, or see how it is poured in the Singapore Spritz.