Vermouth

Vermouth is an aromatized, fortified wine flavored with a proprietary blend of botanicals such as roots, barks, flowers and spices, along with a bittering agent, historically often wormwood, from which the drinks name derives via the German word for that plant. Sweet, red vermouth developed in Turin, Italy in the late eighteenth century, while dry, white vermouth developed somewhat later in France. Vermouth is drunk on its own as an aperitif, often over ice, and is also a key ingredient in numerous classic cocktails, including the martini, the manhattan and the negroni, where it moderates and rounds out the base spirit.