I recently visited Noilly Prat in a small town by the sea called Marseillan down in the Languedoc region of the south of France. I confess that I had never tried or, knew much Vermouth before I had been there so it was interesting to see how it was made. Vermouth is a fortified white wine, which is aged in barrels and has certain spices and herbs added to it during this process which gives it it's unique flavour. Vermouth was invented by a man called Joseph Noilly in 1813, and in 1850 he started producing Noilly Prat, and their process has remained virtually unchanged since that time.
This is my group on our visit!
We had a tour around their premises and got to see various parts of the processes that go in to making their Vermouth. Below you can see the old still that was used to make the Vermouth back in the day.
These are some of the very ancient barrels that were used to make the Vermouth. To clear out the sediments from the bottom a man used to crawl in through the small door and empty it- a little claustrophobic I would think!
They age their wines outside in oak barrels, in the sun as this helps with enhancing their flavour as the temperatures get quite high inside. They have been using these particular American Oak barrels for hundreds of years, and to keep them from splitting they spray them with water once a day to protect the Oak.
Once the wine is ready in the barrel, they empty the barrels by letting them 'free flow', which means the wine runs freely from the barrel in to the large tanks below.
The Vermouth is then aged again in these large barrels below, and this is when they have their unique spices added and they are left to ferment for longer here. They have different flavoured Vermouths, so they add certain herbs and spices to each one.
They make 3 flavours of their famous Vermouth, the first is their original Dry Vermouth, then their Rouge and finally their Amber Vermouth.
The original Dry Vermouth has a very savoury, herbal taste to it. I didn't find it particularly pleasant to drink on its own, but it would work well for cooking.
The Rouge Vermouth was a little more to my liking but still with a savoury twang. This had a more spicy flavour that would work well with a twist of orange with it.
My favourite was the Amber Vermouth. This had a sweet, Christmassy flavour to it, with hints of cinnamon, orange and vanilla. This one is also particularly special as one can only buy it at their premises in Marseillan. I think it would work really well with a fruit cake or a mince pie, so I am saving my bottle until December!
This is the beautiful seaside town of Marseillan. It is very small, but very beautiful with boats along the water and inciting looking restaurants. If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend a visit!
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