vermouth

recipe by a anonymous "jack".

Start out with a dry white wine, or a red wine that you've sweetened (to taste?).

The most common herbs in Vermouth are also common cooking herbs: cloves, cinnamon, aniseed, star anise, citrus peel, ginger, coriander, sage (good for it's bitterness), chamomile (you can get that one from an herbal tea), juniper berries, and hops (one friend of mine has made a collection of Vermouths using only one type of hop in each -- but he doesn't boil them to preserve the aroma). From the garden you can get rose petals and raspberries.

Combine the dry herbs (a teaspoon of each to start), smell them, then make adjustments according to taste. If you only have some of the herbs, don't worry -- you don't need them all. In fact, you should just select the ones you like the flavor of.

Once you have a dry herb blend that you like, put it in a saucepan and add just enough of the wine to cover the herbs. Put the lid on and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes on a low heat. Using the wine instead of water will get the slightly oxidized flavor without risk of ruining all the wine. Let this mess cool overnight (covered) and then strain the herbs out of the liquid, which is now a Vermouth-flavored essence. Just add the essence to the wine until you get the taste intensity you want. Adding a splash of brandy (about 60-ml per 750-ml bottle) is all you need to fortify it.

If one herb doesn't come out as strong as you want, simmer that herb alone in some of the wine, then add it back. Sometimes a touch of oak from some chips adds a nice flavor, too. If allowed to age, the herbal flavor will mellow with time, so if you make it too strong just wait or dilute with some more of the plain wine base.

taken from: http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/request185.asp

when i'm able to try the recipe out, i'll update this to see how it turns out.