Capitoline Dry Vermouth 750ml

Capitoline began somewhat informally in the mid-2000s when Kat Hamidi and Peter Pastan started experimenting with vermouth inside their Washington, DC Italian restaurants, tinkering with recipes for the better part of a decade before officially launching the brand in 2015. The vermouths were first produced at New Columbia Distillers in Ivy City, the DC house behind Green Hat Gin, before Hamidi shifted production to Rosemont Vineyards & Winery in Virginia when New Columbia was sold and later shuttered.

The dry vermouth starts from an aromatic, stainless steel fermented white wine base sourced with the same care a winemaker might give a still wine rather than treated as an afterthought. That base is fortified with a grain spirit and infused with fifteen botanicals and spices, among them gentian, artichoke, rhubarb root, quinine, ginger, citrus peel, and juniper, steeped rather than masked so the underlying wine still comes through.

The result is savory and herbal, with an almost nutty, tahini-like richness threaded through notes of fennel, mushroom, and chamomile. Bitterness lingers pleasantly on the finish rather than fading quickly. Pour it over ice as a low-proof sipper, stir it into a classic martini or Vesper, or serve alongside roasted almonds and aged pecorino.