Not that many years ago Italian Vermouth as a category was dominated by industrial-scale companies, and drinkers looking for lively, fresh, distinctive flavors went elsewhere. Not now. Frederico ‘Fred’ Cremasco uses Verduzzo, a high-quality Friulian white wine, as his base and 25 different botanicals, including three different varieties of wormwood, two of orange, gentian root, cinchona bark and angelica in this Vermouth (‘Vermut’ in Italian), a staggeringly complex, refined beverage full of herbs and citrus with a beautifully balanced bitterness. The body is rich in red fruits and black cherry, rounded and smooth throughout, with an intense woodsy, juniper berry finish.