The 8 Best Sweet Vermouths

A selection of sweet vermouth we recommend on a yellow background — The Spruce Eats / Amelia Manley

For some drinkers, sweet vermouth is an enigma, a seldom-touched bottle gathering dust on the bottom shelf of the neighborhood liquor store.

These people clearly don't like Manhattans or Negronis.

A fortified wine infused with an array of herbs, spices, and other botanicals, sweet vermouth brings sweetness and big flavors than can stand up to high-proof whiskey or bitter Campari in a cocktail. It also makes an excellent aperitif or digestif, a complex sipper to savor before or after a meal. But with a wide array of flavor notes and styles available, choosing the right vermouth requires a bit of thought.

“A great vermouth, in my opinion, is one that's strong on its own, either with some ice or chilled,” says Juliette Larrouy, creative director at Two Schmucks in Barcelona, which was recently named one of the World’s 50 Best Bars. “I think you should begin with asking what you want to use the vermouth for,” Larrouy says. “If you're going to drink it Spanish-style—only with some ice and a wedge of orange, maybe some olives—you want something slightly heavier with a lot more spice. For a cocktail, I think you should look more towards French- and Italian-style sweet vermouth, as they're made to be mixed with other ingredients.”

Our Top Picks

Best Overall:

Dolin Vermouth Rouge at Drizly $8

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Best Budget:

Cinzano Rosso Sweet Vermouth at Drizly $7

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Best for Sipping:

Cocchi Vermouth Di Torino at Wine Chateau

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Best for Manhattans:

Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth at Drizly $26

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Best for Negronis:

Cinzano 1757 Vermouth di Torino Rosso at Drizly $12

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Best for Boulevardiers:

Carpano Punt e Mes at Amazon $27

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Best American:

Vya Sweet Vermouth at Drizly $19

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Best Spanish:

Lustau Vermut Rojo at Totalwine.com

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Best Overall

Dolin Vermouth Rouge

PHOTO: Total Wine

$8 at Drizly View on Wine Chateau View on Totalwine.com

French brand Dolin is perhaps better known for its dry vermouths (Dolin Dry and Dolin Blanc), but you should not overlook its delicious sweet. Dolin Rouge is flavored with upwards of 30 botanicals, including coriander, hyssop, rhubarb, and a number of wild herbs found in the alpine region above its mountainous home of Chambéry in southeastern France. It’s floral, but not overly sweet, which is helpful in creating balanced cocktails. In terms of body and intensity, this sweet vermouth is on the lighter side, but it still offers robust notes of tree fruit and soft touches of honey and sherry. It's ideal for nearly any cocktail you might want to mix up.

Origin: Chambéry, France | ABV: 16 percent | Size: 750 milliliters | Tasting notes: tree fruit, honey, sherry, citrus

Best Budget

Cinzano Rosso Sweet Vermouth

PHOTO: Total Wine

$7 at Drizly View on Totalwine.com

Even high-end vermouth is not particularly expensive, but if you're throwing a party and need a mountain of Manhattans on a budget, look no further than Cinzano Rosso. It's an intensely colored vermouth with plenty of sweetness and viscosity that can add mouthfeel to cocktails, along with complex bitterness. Spicy and sweet, Cinzano Rosso offers a lingering fruity finish that marries well with whiskey or gin, or simply some club soda and ice.

Origin: Turin, Italy | ABV: 16 percent | Size: 750 milliliters | Tasting notes: vanilla, black cherry, caramel

Best for Sipping

Cocchi Vermouth Di Torino

PHOTO: Total Wine

View on Wine Chateau View on Totalwine.com View on Astorwines.com

The Piemonte region in northwestern Italy, centered around the city of Turin, is the historic center of sweet vermouth production. Nestled between France and Switzerland at the foot of the Alps, it has excellent climate for wine grapes as well as easy access to the wild mountain herbs that give vermouth its unique flavor. Local producer Cocchi is dedicated to making wines and aperitifs in the old-fashioned way, and its Vermouth di Torino revived an authentic 19th-century vermouth style that had all but disappeared.

Based on fragrant moscato wine, this vermouth's depth is evident from the second it touches the lips. The textured herbal bitterness gently pulses against a rich sweetness hued with cocoa, cherry, vanilla, and candied fruit. It's dynamite before a meal with a bit of ice and lemon zest, or afterward neat, as a dessert wine.

Region: Cocconato, Italy | ABV: 16 percent | Size: 750 milliliters | Tasting notes: cocoa, citrus, rhubarb, ginger

Best for Manhattans

Carpano Antica Formula Vermouth

PHOTO: Total Wine

$26 at Drizly $48 at Wine.com View on Gopuff.com

The sight of Carpano Antica Formula behind any bar is a good sign that the watering hole’s Manhattan is top-notch. The gold standard among craft bartenders, this vermouth is big, bold, and pleasantly intense. One of the oldest sweet vermouth brands, Antica Formula's recipe dates to the 1700s and boasts a remarkably herbal nose and notes of tropical vanilla, cocoa, orange, and a hint of saffron. This gives it an ideal profile to stand up to whiskey, in a bourbon or rye Manhattan, or a Rob Roy if you prefer Scotch.

Origin: Turin, Italy | ABV: 16.5 percent | Size: 750 milliliters | Tasting notes: vanilla, bitter orange, dates, cocoa beans, saffron

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Best for Negronis

Cinzano 1757 Vermouth di Torino Rosso

PHOTO: Reserve Bar

$12 at Drizly View on Caskers View on Totalwine.com

Cinzano's 1757 line—named for the year the Cinzano brothers founded the company—is a higher-end version of its mass-market vermouths. Made from only Italian wines and incorporating herbs including traditional wormwood from the Piemonte region, the sweet Rosso is a more floral, more fruity, more spicy, and generally more powerful version of standard Cinzano Rosso. It's rich and robust enough to stand up to bitter Campari and a variety of herbal gins in the Negroni. This is a luscious vermouth with loads of tangy fruit notes, a plethora of aromatics, and a dry finish that lets the Campari work its bitter magic. It's also the most expensive on our list, but note that this price is for a 1-liter bottle, a third larger than the more common 750-milliliter container.

Origin: Turin, Italy | ABV: 16 percent | Size: 1 liter | Tasting notes: spice, vanilla, dried figs, floral undertones

Best for Boulevardiers

Carpano Punt e Mes

PHOTO: Total Wine

$27 at Amazon $14 at Drizly $32 at Wine.com

Punt e Mes means "point and a half" in Piedmontese, and the legend behind its creation goes that a local stockbroker, discussing a point-and-a-half rise in the market, ordered his usual serving of sweet vermouth with an extra "half point" of bitter liqueur. Today's version of Punt e Mes has no more alcohol than standard sweet vermouth, but it indeed has a more pronounced bitter flavor, thanks to the addition of quinine to its citrusy and herbal botanicals. It's deeply fruity, with enough sweetness to balance the bitter and create a juicy taste profile. We love to use Punt e Mes in the Boulevardier, which is just a Negroni made with whiskey instead of gin. The extra bitterness gives the already flavorful cocktail another layer of intensity.

Origin: Turin, Italy | ABV: 16 percent | Size: 750 milliliters | Tasting Notes: Dried fruit, orange, prune, quinine

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Best American

Vya Sweet Vermouth

PHOTO: Total Wine

$19 at Drizly $23 at Wine.com View on Garyswine.com

Italy and France may be its ancestral homeland, but vermouth can come from anywhere they make wine. Central California producer Quady Winery's unique sweet vermouth starts with a combination of traditional moscato and the not-so-traditional tinta roriz, a red grape you might also know as tempranillo. A set of 17 botanicals create its uniquely bittersweet richness. Vya's flavor makes a delicate foil to Campari, and our favorite way to enjoy this American vermouth is ironically in the Americano cocktail. Combine equal parts Campari and sweet vermouth over ice and top with club soda and a citrus twist for one of summer's easiest and most refreshing drinks.

Origin: Madera, Calif. | ABV: 16% | Size: 750 milliliters | Tasting Notes: Honey, orange rind, apricot, warm spices

Best Spanish

Lustau Vermut Rojo

View on Totalwine.com

Vermouth is a beloved aperitif in Spain, especially the Catalonia region and its capital, Barcelona. A glass of iced vermouth, maybe with a shot of soda water, garnished with a citrus twist or an olive, is the perfect start to a long lunch, or with some tapas. There are a number of homegrown Spanish vermouth makers, whose styles lean into that style of service and use local wines, making for a unique flavor profile.

Best known as a maker of sherry, Lustau uses a mix of amontillado and Pedro Ximenez styles as the base for its sweet vermouth. These add a savory nuttiness and a fruity sweetness, respectively, while the botanicals add citrus bitterness and the "green" notes of herbs like sage. One sip will have your mouth watering, and you'll understand why it's a good aperitif.

Origin: Jerez de la Frontera, Spain | ABV: 15 percent | Size: 750 milliliters | Tasting notes: Ripe fruit, green herbs, nutty

Final Verdict

Dolin Vermouth Rouge is our preference when it comes to sheer versatility; its light and floral notes marry well with pretty much any cocktail ingredients you already have on hand. If you want to enjoy your sweet vermouth solo, try Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, made in a classic Italian style.

What to Look for in a Sweet Vermouth

Origin

As with any other type of wine, the place where the grapes were grown for a sweet vermouth make a big difference in the flavor. And on top of that, different regions have their own signature flavor profile and preferred botanicals. Every sweet vermouth brand is different, but, in general, Italian ones have a sweet body and flavors that can stand up to powerful cocktail ingredients like whiskey; French ones are more delicate and floral but still mixable; and Spanish ones are a bit more fruit-forward and savory, generally meant to drink solo, with food.

Flavors

The country of origin can give you some clues, but you really have to taste a sweet vermouth to know whether it's for you. Remember that "sweet" is a relative term: The wine has some sweetness, but it also has sour acidity, herbal bitterness, and tannic body. One sweet vermouth might have vanilla and caramel on the palate, while another could feature fruitier strawberry and plum.

Use

Is the sweet vermouth you're looking for going to be mixed in a cocktail or sipped solo? Different styles work for different purposes. Strong and spicy flavors are good for a strong cocktail like a Manhattan, while a more delicate bottling would be best for mixing with soda in a highball. A pre-meal aperitif calls for a vermouth that's more gentle, but a digestif afterward works better with a sweeter flavor bomb.

FAQs

What is sweet vermouth?

Vermouth is a fortified wine, which is a wine that's been "fortified" with a distilled spirit (usually brandy, in the case of vermouth) to raise the alcohol content. Vermouth in particular is also infused with herbs and spices to add a wide variety of flavors. The name comes from vermut, German for wormwood, an herb that's traditionally (but not always) part of the recipe. Sweet vermouth is darker in color and, generally, sweeter than dry vermouth, but each brand uses a different base wine and set of botanicals to create its own signature flavor. Sometimes called Italian vermouth or red vermouth, sweet vermouth doesn't have to come from Italy, and it's actually made from white wine in most cases—the color comes from the botanicals as well as barrel-aging.

How do you use sweet vermouth?

You drink it! Sweet vermouth mixes well, even with other strong flavors, so it's a cocktail favorite. American whiskey and gin are its partner in the familiar Manhattan and Negroni, respectively, but it can pair with nearly anything, even balancing out the unlikely combination of Scotch and orange juice in the classic blood and sand cocktail.

And can you drink sweet vermouth by itself? Of course you can! It's commonly enjoyed solo either before or after a meal, on ice as an aperitif or neat as a digestif.

How long does sweet vermouth last?

Vermouth doesn't spoil as quickly as regular wine, but it does spoil. Once you've opened the bottle, you have about a month for peak freshness, and about 3 months before the flavors go completely off. You should always store opened vermouth in the refrigerator. We say it's best to dump out your vermouth and replace it quarterly if you don't use it up. (A sealed bottle, on the other hand, will last for years if kept cool and away from light.)

What food goes well with sweet vermouth?

Dark, fruity, and aromatic, sweet vermouth goes well with hard aged cheeses like asiago, tossed salads topped with fruit, chicken and seafood dishes like stir-fries, and red meat dishes—including steaks or burgers.

Why Trust The Spruce Eats?

Nicholas McClelland has written about spirits for Men’s Journal, Fatherly, and Inside Hook. His bar is deep with rare single malts, hard-to-find bourbons, and ryes, but he doesn't believe there's anything too precious to share with friends.

The Spruce Eats writer Jason Horn updated this roundup. He's been covering food and drinks for almost 20 years, including as an editor at Liquor.com and cocktail columnist for Playboy. He prefers rye in his Manhattans, and his Negroni a little short on the gin and long on the Campari.

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Updated by

Sharon Lockley

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