What Is Vermouth
A story that begins in Turin, 1786
A centuries-old tradition
Vermouth is a wine aromatised with herbs and spices and fortified with alcohol, enjoyed as an aperitif and as a cocktail ingredient. The name comes from the German word Wermut (wormwood, artemisia absinthium).
Its story began in Turin, Piedmont, in 1786, with Antonio Benedetto Carpano. Historic producers include Cinzano, Martini & Rossi, Cocchi and Cora.
Vermouth reached Spain in 1876 thanks to the Perucchi family, and took deep root in the Spanish culture of tapas and the aperitivo.
Turin, capital of Piedmont — where Antonio Benedetto Carpano created the first modern vermouth in 1786.
Vermouth and the Canary Islands
Despite their rich winemaking tradition, the Canary Islands had never had a vermouth of their own. The wineries of DO Lanzarote make exceptional wines from native varieties such as Malvasía Volcánica, yet no one had taken the step of turning them into vermouth.
Primo de Lanzarote changed that. It set out to create the first Canarian vermouth, using Malvasía Volcánica and the Diego grape as its base and infusing them with selected botanicals: wormwood, coriander, thyme, elderflower, Canarian sage, Canarian saffron, prickly pear and Canarian orange.
The result is a vermouth that honours the classic recipe yet is, at heart, a product of Lanzarote — volcanic, Atlantic, Canarian.