99 year old bottle of Vermouth, Sidecar 11, Portland OR
This was one of the first bottles shopped to the US back in 1914. You may have seen the posters in movies and old Italian restaurants. I never new it was vermouth. And what is vermouth? It’s basically an aperitif made of fortified wine with herbs. Cinzano dates back to 1757 from the wine shop of two brothers. They created this new “vermouth russo” and added 35 ingredients including aromatics gathered from around the Italian Alps. The recipe is secret to this day and was enjoyed by bourgeoisie of Turin and, later, Casanova.
This bottle was was purchased before Prohibition, so when that hit, its’ owner had to hide it and away. So it was forgotten. I was recently found in an old house here in Portland, in a secret compartment.
Sidecar 11, a wine bar on my street, had a special event tonight. As this bottle was appraised at a thousand dollars (one of the staff was offered 2K for it!), they wanted to enjoy it so instead made Manhattans for connoisseurs of the unique (vermouth is a key ingredient in that cocktail).
So you’re wondering if a 99 year old bottle of vermouth might go bad. Well, at 40 bucks a pop, the owner was a little nervous, too. However, luck was with him, and all who partook: it was delicious.
