Happy Yuletide With A Vermouth Story

Hoping you are buzzing with joy in preparations to delight body and soul, yours and the ones around you, I am sending you a story which might be a little inspiration to celebrate herbs and their kind gifts of wellbeing.

Thank you for your curiosity and will to follow my dancing with herbs, in words, photographs, in the garden, in the kitchen and in my clinic.

See you next year for more herbal adventures, stay joyful and kind.

Why Vermouth

When a gourmet dinner with friends or family ends and time for a digestive drink arrives, I usually choose a vermouth. 

Why?It is sophisticated in its simplicity, a layered story conveyed to the senses through herbs immersed in rich smooth red wine, with a hidden scent of wormwood.

And I feel it is also a great choice of drink to celebrate moments such as Yuletide as the warmth of spices envelopes our senses and remind us of the hope of new light.

In learning the name ‘vermouth’ may have originated from the word ‘wermut,’ German for ‘wormwood,’ I realised perhaps one of the reasons I’ve always liked it is the presence of this very herb. 

But it is becoming ever more difficult to find a natural vermouth, most sold now in shops being artificially-induced chemical concoctions. 

That’s why I decided to make my own. In this regard, my genetic inheritance helped.

My grandmother was a well-respected herbalist in rural Transylvania based on her deep knowledge of plants than any formal college qualifications and she used wormwood to make teas for myself and my sister when we complained of tummy troubles. Or any problem for that matter. Along with yarrow and St. John’s wort, she dealt with many ailments, with no need for doctors or other medications. Consequently, I grew up fond of bitter teas, as well as the iconic aroma of wormwood, feeling it as a warm embrace, a cure-for-all. 

A common herb in medieval monasteries, wormwood was used to ease nausea, reduce flatulence, strengthen the stomach and mitigate scorpion and snake bites. It also eased earaches and sore throats, regulated menstruation, and is still used today for digestive and inflammatory conditions, overworked liver, intestinal parasites, and externally for arthritic pains. 

Hildegard von Bingen (11th-12th century) had a recipe made with the juice of fresh wormwood herb, wine, and honey, used as a tonic, digestive, liver and bile stimulant, and to lift melancholy (slow digestion, appetite, and metabolism).

Travels with Vermouth

In my native country, Romania, we’ve a drink called ‘pelin’ - our word for wormwood - still popular and usually drunk after heavy meals. A simple wine (we don’t give it the title vermouth), it is infused - aside from wormwood - with other herbs such as star anise, coriander, mint, basil and sage. It might have been developed initially to preserve wine being transported long distances. 

Greeks who settled on the Romanian side of the Black Sea where I once lived kept their wine in ceramic vessels and sealed them with pine resin. When I visited the island of Thasos, retsina, an aromatic saline, piney white wine was a delight to enjoy with dinner. Refreshing and slightly bitter, it aided digestion. While not considered a vermouth, it shows how plants were once a central part of people’s everyday diet, even in drinks.

Every March, I organise a creative writing retreat in southern France, a beautiful region known as the Pyrenees Orientales, part of Catalonia. One of the highlights of the week is visiting the Byrrh cellers in the charming town of Thuir. A quinine-based fortified red wine with a quirky history, Byrrh was launched initially as a medicinal tonic by brothers Simon and Pallade Violet in 1866, but was contested by pharmacists in Montpellier as ‘unfair competition.’ So the Violet brothers re-launched the drink as an aperitif (or digestive, depending on your choice) under the name Byrrh. Still produced today, it’s a blend of ingredients such as quinoa, coffee beans, cacao, cinnamon, chamomile, elderflower, orange peel and calumba in fortified wine. While not a vermouth and lacking wormwood, it’s a close cousin, a delightful drink to help digestion and introduce herbs into diets. 

I have not tasted the German version of vermouth but if you have and have an old recipe, please contact me. From my research, I discovered some herbs used. Besides basic ones such as wormwood, chamomile, angelica or gentian root, juniper berries and orange peel, there are also sweet woodruff, linden flowers, caraway seeds and marjoram.

Spain also has interesting varieties. Visiting Valencia, I came across Yzaguirre vermouth, a mid-size family business claiming to use around 80 botanicals such as sweet flag, chiretta, penny royal, Cretan dittany and iris. For obvious reasons, they keep their complete list secret. 

A few years ago I came across a Kew-Gardens-inspired vermouth, purportedly based on an old recipe. Botanicals were infused in alcohol first, then mixed with wine (white or red) and sweetened for taste. Some herbs used were wormwood, gentian root, dried orange peel, dried lemon peel, chamomile, coriander seed, cardamom pods, cinnamon, rosemary, juniper, thyme, lavender and black pepper. 

Finding this way of making vermouth interesting, I usually make my ‘absolute’ - infusing the herbs in alcohol, using 40% vodka - then mix some of the absolute in wine and sweeten with honey.  

As a medical herbalist, I’m always trying to develop new ways for people to enjoy herbs in their day-to-day lives, in food and drinks. A firm believer that herbal medicine is fun, vermouths can be a creative way to convince family and friends about the benefits of Mother Nature. With winter holidays approaching, such drinks - which you can easily make at home - can be a highlight of dinners and parties and fertile ground for nutritional creativity.

I am constantly having fun trying different variations and I hope you will too. Here’s one recipe to try this winter.  

Make a tincture using 40% vodka (or brandy) and some of these herbs: wormwood, myrtle leaves and berries, cinnamon sticks, orris root, tonka beans, gentian root, cloves, star anis, cardamom, mace, sage, juniper berries, rue, cotton and thyme. After 3-4 weeks press it, then store your ‘absolute’ in a dark glass bottle, just like a tincture. Use 30 ml of absolute to 750 ml of wine and sweeten with honey or apple concentrate.

Savour and smile. 

I’d love to hear from you on other creative methods and mixes for vermouth, or interesting producers you have discovered. 

Please use herbs responsibly and if pregnant or on medications, check with your local herbal practitioner or doctor.