Slideshow: Vermouth’s Bittersweet Revenge

在现代历史的227年期间，苦艾酒一直是一种药用补品，一种挽救“饮酒”的方法，也是马提尼酒和曼哈顿的关键组成部分。在世界某些地区，它仍然是一个流行的开胃酒：在意大利，首先制定了在其甜红色迭代中芳香的强化葡萄酒；法国，后来以“干”风格反驳；和西班牙，阿尔伯特·阿德里亚（AlbertAdrià）最近开设了Bodega 1900，这是巴塞罗那新潮的新潮之一vermuterías。但是，在这个国家，甜美而苦涩的东西主要是一条拳，尤其是在马提尼酒饮酒者中，干燥已成为一种美德，即使不是宗教。（谁能忘记比尔·穆雷（Bill MurrayGroundhog Day?) But the tide might be turning.

As the cocktail craze has made us rethink proportions (see Audrey Saunders’s unabashedly wet Fitty-Fitty martini at Pegu Club), and craft producers have rediscovered bitters and micro-distilled gin and whiskey, vermouth has become newly relevant. In addition to the archetypical sweet “Italian” and dry “French,” a nascent American style is emerging, one that first materialized on the West Coast and sprouted here more recently. Unbound by tradition—or some might say brashly flouting it—American vermouths can be bracingly dry, assertively piney or herbal, and absent the wormwood that had been the aromatized wine’s defining ingredient. Several new renditions come from innovative wineries like Napa’s Massican and Bridgehampton’s Channing Daughters. But along with the urge to reinvent has come renewed appreciation of the classics—some, like the resuscitated Contratto brand and Carpano Bianco, arriving in the United States just this year.

Obsolete no more, vermouth has its own “Institute” at the annual industry blowout Tales of the Cocktail, its own website (devotee Martin Doudoroff’s illuminatingvermouth101.com），以及在越来越多的酒吧菜单上的自豪感 - 作为开胃酒或鸡尾酒中的展示。在这里，这是一个越来越拥挤的领域中一些最新参与者的指南。

*This article originally appeared in the December 9, 2013 issue ofNew York Magazine.