How Are They Made?

Vermouth and Martini

Vermouth is aromatised wine consisting of a combination of 4 types of natural ingredients: wine, botanicals, sugar & alcohol. The selection & balance of the ingredients are essential for the making of vermouth and impact greatly on the taste of the final product.

There are 3 main types of vermouth – Extra Dry, Bianco and Rosso.

Established in 1863, Martini is the world’s number 1 vermouth. Pessione the home of Martini lies near Turin in the middle of the Piedmont region in Northern Italy. Surrounded by hills and mountains, the region provides some of the best herbs & wines for the delicate production of Martini.

The unique taste of Martini comes from a complex blend of more then 40 botanicals, carefully selected for their natural and aromatic properties.

Ingredients

Wine is the main ingredient and the base of Martini (75% in volume). Therefore the quality of the wine has a direct impact on the quality and stability of the final drink.

All of the Martini variants use dry white wine as there base. The only exception is Rosato which contains a small amount of red wine. The wines are mainly sourced from Piedmont and other wine producing regions of Italy such as Romagna, Puglia & Sicily.

Although wine is the main ingredients, botanicals are undoubtedly the key ingredients in Martini as far as taste is concerned. The unique taste of martini lies in an incredible spread of herbs & spices (roots, leaves, flowers, barks, fruits and seeds). 40 botanicals are carefully selected and mixed together for the Making of Martini. These range from cinnamon, raspberry, and coriander to lemon, hops and iris to name only a few, and are gathered from around Italy and around the world. It is the diversity of botanicals used which is the simple secret of the finesse and rich complexity that differentiates Martini from the others.

Another key ingredient is a small quantity of natural and pure alcohol. This fortified the wine and brigs the final product up to 15% alcohol by volume.

Last but not the least ingredient in Martini is very fine and crystallised white natural sugar, added to the blend to provide extra body and smoothness to Martini. This sweet touch also compliments the bitterness of the botanicals, resulting in this delightful balanced taste which is unique to Martini.

Production process:

The meet the high standards of Martini the wine blend needs to be refined and filtered to get rid of any compounds naturally present in the grapes. The wine blend is simply mixed with traditional agents used in the wine industry which provoke the coagulation of the undesirable compounds.

The botanicals are not used in their raw form and the aromatic substances they contain must be extracted before going any further. The first task is to prepare a dried mix of the botanicals selected for each Martini variant, by dehydrating the selected parts of the herbs and spices and cutting or reducing them into powder.

For the 4 different variants of martini there are 2 ways of extraction: maceration (Rosso & Bianco), and distillation (Extra Dry & Rosato).

After meticulous preparation the ingredients can be introduced to each other. The crystallised sugar is added to the clarified wine, then the aromatic extract, followed by the caramel for Martini Rosso and lastly the pure alcohol. The mix is then slowly turned and stirred.

The blend needs to mature one week to allow the ingredients to fuse together and reach the perfect balance, body and taste that make Martini what it is. After this week Martini is refrigerated and held for a few days ay around -8°C, close to its freezing point. The cold precipitates substances which may form a natural deposit later if the drink is stored at low temperatures or served on ice. The precipitate is simple removed by a cold filtration.

Finally, immediately prior to bottling, Martini is subjected to another very fine sterilising filtration to ensure its perfect clarity as well as biological stability.

This is what it takes to prepare the finest vermouth and Martini is proud to fill over 100 million bottles every year which are enjoyed all over the world.

How to drink:

Martini can be enjoyed as a long, light & refreshing drink with the below mixers:

Pomegranate
Ginger ale
Cranberry
Apple

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