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The Many Flavors of Vermouth
Can anyone provide any insight on what class/type options might work for a vermouth? Anyone out there currently bottling a vermouth?
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10 Replies
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Vermouth is a wine product; wine, plus brandy, plus spices. Specifically: “Herb flavored fortified (containing added brandy or alcohol) grape wine containing not less than 15% alcohol by volume”. I produce and bottle a dry white vermouth to go with our gin. It is often useful to be a winery too.
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kkbodine, would you mind elaborating on issues relating to permits required? (eg. winery vs. dsp)
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At the time we received our licenses, 2006, we created and were permitted contiguous space that houses a winery and a DSP. The winery application is almost exactly the same as the DSP at the federal level. Of course each state has their own ideas too. I’m not sure I have much to add… we had no issues getting the permits to be both things. For me it is very handy to produce wine in the winery, send some to the DSP, then send some brandy back for vermouth or “port” production.
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Given the above, I have seen at least 2 DSPs producing Vermouth, how are they doing it without being a winery?
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Given the above, I have seen at least 2 DSPs producing Vermouth, how are they doing it without being a winery?
Can you point to them? They could be doing a vermouth amaro: a style of Italian bitter liqueur that uses similar botanicals as a vermouth, is lighter in alcohol, and may even include some of the wine added back in. This would be a spirit, not a wine.
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Perhaps a better question would be: Could one get label approval for a Liqueur class product (with no type designation) that contains 50% wine by volume, has an ABV of 20% and says “Vermouth” on the label?
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Here is the CFR for defining Vermouth. I would say it is unlikely to do what you want as it is clearly in the Wine standards of identity and not Spirits. Also you would be paying spirits tax rates vs. wine tax rates on the product if it was in liqueur class.
Title 27, Chap 1, Subchapter A, Part 4, Subpart C 4.21
(g) Class 7; aperitif wine. (1) Aperitif wine is wine having an alcoholic content of not less than 15 percent by volume, compounded from grape wine containing added brandy or alcohol, flavored with herbs and other natural aromatic flavoring materials, with or without the addition of caramel for coloring purposes, and possessing the taste, aroma, and characteristics generally attributed to aperitif wine and shall be so designated unless designated as “vermouth” under paragraph (g)(2) of this section.
(2) Vermouth is a type of aperitif wine compounded from grape wine, having the taste, aroma, and characteristics generally attributed to vermouth, and shall be so designated.
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Under certain circumstances, you can add up to 2-1/2% of wine as a flavoring, see 5-23, without changing the class of the spirit. You would have more leeway incorporating wine in something classified as a specialty.
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So Hedgebird – just found this old thread – and was wondering if you ever found anything more about it? Looking at the regs – it seems to me if we bring in wine – blend it with a brandy and herbs – we could essentially make vermouth – but probably can’t call it that. Maybe a vermouth-style spirit?
Any info you have is appreciated!
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This more recent thread has some relevant material:
http://adiforums.com/topic/8719-using-wine-as-a-component-of-a-distilled-spirit-specialty/
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