Martini is a massive brand. Owned by an even larger brand Bacardi. They have a fairly narrow band of products. In the UK we can buy the following vermouths
- Martini bianco
- Martini dry vermouth
- Martini rosso
Vermouths are an incredibly important part of any cocktail ingredients collection. If you’re making cocktails at home, you need some vermouths. They don’t need to be Martini brand buy you do need some. I have written about the 12 categories of ingredients you need in a separate blog. Click on the link.
They feature in so many cocktails : both modern and classic. You need them for drinks such as the Manhattan and Negroni. And if you create any cocktail you will call a martini, it should contain a vermouth.
New product launches
Over the last few years, 10 or so (I guess) the Martini brand has launched some new variants. So far, so good. It’s good to see all brands increase their offering up to a point. They launched the lovely pinky-hue Martini rosato. Then on the back of the Aperol craze, they launched a vermouth with the fantastic Aperol colour with a bit of a citrusy, orangey thing about it. This is Martini Fiero. Particularly Fiero was frequently sold in the supermarkets at discounted prices. A 75cl bottle at £10 is great value for all the versatility you get.
However they have given them no marketing support whatsoever from what I can see. And guess what? They have now both been removed from sale. This is a great pity. That’s my frustration with the Martini brand.
Why does it matter?
The reason it matters is that I have developed many new cocktails over recent years including these ingredients. I am a huge fan of the Negroni. So I have developed many versions of the Negroni over the years. Both my citrus negroni and spiced negroni (great for winter) are great cocktails.
I also enjoy creating martinis. Given that the traditional martini is based around gin and vermouth, a proper martini should contain either gin or vodka and a vermouth. Stands to reason. But with flavoured gins and vodkas you have immense choice. There are so many great versions of the martini out there. I have developed many new ones at home.
Alternatives
So the obvious thing to do is select different vermouths to use instead of the Martini products. However, they won’t taste the same and so to some degree you have to go back and reformulate the cocktail. Admittedly, these are first world problems. I have many other vermouths in my collection in any case and I would recommend all of these
- Noilly Prat – an excellent white vermouth
- Punt e Mes – a red vermouth which is slightly bitter, so allow for that in constructing your cocktails
- Sacred spiced red vermouth – an English brand and a beautiful complex vermouth
- Chamberyzette – an interesting but delicate French strawberry vermouth
Incidentally Martini still lists both rosato and fiero on their global website. So the other alternative for me is to tap anyone I know who mentions that they’re going to Italy!
Cheers! Happy cocktailing.