Anyone who’s spent an extended period living in Italy comes home with an abiding love of aperitivi, those appetite-whetting vermouths and bitter liqueurs the Italians do so well. Such was the case with Massican winemaker Dan Petroski, who spent time in Sicily early on in his career, but even if he hadn’t caught the Italian bug he probably would have found his way to vermouth anyway: What winemaker wouldn’t want to play around with witches' brew ingredients like quassia bark and galangal root, especially when you can take a batch of wine you might otherwise have sold off in bulk and turn it into something exotic and beautiful?
Like many of his peers in California, Italy, and elsewhere, Petroski has turned Massican Vermouth from an experiment into an enterprise, with two artisanal bottlings that will not only spruce up your cocktail game but make perfectly delicious drinks by themselves. Today’s two-pack is the classic vermouth one-two punch: a “dry” white and a “sweet” red, crafted using base wines from the Napa Valley. Like Petroski’s Massican wines, which include some of California’s crispest, most mineral, Italian-inspired whites, these Vermouths are all about brightness, easy drinkability, and a perfectly modulated mix of sweetness and bitterness. And when you think of how many potential cocktails are in this $50 two-pack, which includes Ground Shipping, you cannot beat the value!
[Note: This pre-packed selection will ship on its own with complimentary Ground Shipping. It does not count toward the six-bottle free shipping minimum and is ineligible for Build-a-Case.]
Vermouth has always been a “thing” in cities like Turin and Barcelona, not to mention remote Alpine villages like Chambéry in France, but in the US, storied brands like Cinzano and Martini & Rossi mostly gathered dust on backbars, waiting to be parceled out a half-ounce at a time in Martinis and Manhattans. More recently, of course, the category has exploded: not only have old-school labels like Carpano (Antica Formula; Punt e Mes) and Cocchi blown up, all sorts of small-batch players have expanded the flavor palette exponentially. Massican’s vermouths, which take their inspiration from Italian classics like Carpano, aren’t even the first Californian vermouths we’ve offered here on SommSelect.
Petroski, who makes the wines at Napa’s storied Larkmead Winery in addition to his Massican lineup, says that even some of the acknowledged vermouth greats are a little too sweet for his taste. “I wanted to make classically defined vermouths,” he says, “but a little lighter on the sweetness and a little fresher, so if you make a Negroni with Massican Sweet Red Vermouth, the palate isn't sickly sweet, it's more open and nuanced.” The residual sugar levels in both the Massican vermouths are both attuned to “wine” palates, and are thus especially well-suited to sipping on their own over ice.
Dan is also a fan of “three-ingredient cocktails,” so, despite the laundry list of spices, roots, peels, etc. available to modern vermouth-makers, he kept his recipes relatively simple. Originally, he only made a “white” vermouth, sticking with a citrus/fruit note (orange); an herbaceous note (coriander); a spice (nutmeg); and a “bitter” component from quassia wood (a blond, piney wood). The newer red vermouth “…carries the same three ingredients but swaps out the quassia wood for the sassafras and ginger notes of galangal root.”
In both cases, my first choice would be to keep it simple: For the very floral, citrusy white, which is based on a wine from all the Massican white grapes, go with a tall glass, lots of ice, some tonic or soda, and an orange slice. For the red, skip the soda and shorten the glass, although it will work like a charm in a Manhattan or Negroni. As a Negroni lover myself, I can attest to how well it works in the drink: there’s much less syrupy viscosity and sweetness and more spice and refreshment.
Finally, I’ll finish off this offer with a recipe from Dan: The two-ingredient “Gin & It,” the “It” being the Massican Sweet Red. Take two to three ounces of Gin, about a half-ounce of the vermouth, then stir and strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with a lemon or orange peel. The pinkish hue will remind some of the Cosmopolitan-swilling days of yore. Enjoy!
