Vermut & Friends
May is our favorite month. More specifically, late May, when the days stretch out almost infinitely, and the promise of summer is so close.
photo by Becky Lawton
The feel of warmer weather in Spain, added to the (finally) broader availability of Covid vaccines, and subsequent loosening up of restrictions that have been in place for what feels like forever, is showing up on smiley faces and improved moods all around. People are more than ready -desperate, in fact- to go back to hanging out with friends and loved ones over long aperitivos and sobremesas.
Today we’d like to tell you about one of our very favorite beverages, which is in fact so much more than that, as its name has extended to the time of day its served, along with the small bites that go alongside it. Yes, we are referring to vermut, a fortified wine that caught on in Spain in the 19th century, fell out of favor for a while, and for the past several years has been coming on strong again, yay (did I tell you we love it?).
We recently attended a super fun vermut workshop at Lov Ferments, which we realized was right up our alley as the instructor’s first claim was that we drink vermut because it’s in our culture, sometimes unbeknownst to us -statements like these are at the heart of what we do here at Sobremesa.
Legend goes that vermut -or vermouth, in English we use the French word, go figure- was originally conceived as a medicinal beverage, a way to get medicinal herbs into the body. Each maker has its own secret formula, though all of them contain wormwood, the herb vermut is named after, except in the US, where wormwood is still forbidden in some places, as it’s the herb absinthe is made from. Other popular herbs and spices include orange peel, cinnamon, licorice, ginger, gentian, cardamom, vanilla, and a long etc.
Gradually, vermut went from medicinal to just for fun and pleasure. In Spain, the industrial town of Reus, in southern Catalunya, was the capital of vermut for a while, and they made Turin-style vermuts with local flavors. Each vermut-producing (and drinking) region has its own preferred flavor profile: in Italy they like it bitter; France favors the dry white vermouth, whereas in Spain we like it sweet. Order a vermut anywhere in Spain and chances are you will be served a sweet, red vermut, the white one is much harder to come by.
This sweetness is always balanced out by some very salty nibbles served alongside. Some classic solid accompaniments to vermut are potato chips, anchovies (or tinned fish in general), olives. Of course you can also get much fancier; in fact, there’s a growing popularity of bars serving vermut and more elaborate tapas in Barcelona currently. However, there’s something to be said for simplicity, and keep in mind that Spain holds a longstanding tradition of very high quality conservas or tinned seafood.
Perhaps what I love most about vermut is, in addition to its flavor, the simple goodness it represents. What more can you want from life then a relaxed stretch of time in company and conversation (or not), sipping on something that tastes good, nibbling on something that tastes good, making both taste even better together?
photo by Becky Lawton
Vermut is a drink to be shared. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone drinking vermut alone, nor have I done so. In fact, here comes the best part, that synecdoche I referred to above: vermut has come to represent the larger act of having aperitivo on a sunny pre-lunch day off with others. “Fer el vermut” they say in Catalan (literally to do vermut), as if it were an activity in itself. When you ask someone in Spain whether they want to meet up for vermut, they immediately understand many things: you might not even drink vermut, as a matter of fact, but you will meet at a certain time (around 12:30 or 1pm), and spend a relaxed while together, preferably outside, weather permitting.
Yet another cherished aspect of vermut is that you don’t need to spend a lot of money; in fact, some argue that the return of vermut’s popularity in Spain was directly related to the economic crisis post-2009, when people could. no longer offer to eat out as much, so they found thriftier ways to go out. A glass of vermut will never set you back the way a fancy wine or cocktail might. And since it’s meant to be sipped very slowly, you are granted a decent amount of time with it at any bar that serves it.
Drink vermut, be happy. We love it, did we tell you?