Winemaker Notes
Vya Sweet Vermouth is made in an Italian style, with 17+ botanicals and spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and clove that open the palate and marry with the vanilla notes in whiskey. Vya Sweet’s unique base is a blend of dry white wine, Quady’s own proprietary Essensia Orange Muscat, and Starboard Batch 88, a port-style wine. Essensia is a fortified dessert wine with orange marmalade characteristics. Starboard Batch 88 has a chocolate-raisin character and is made with Portuguese grape varieties aged an average of five years. Proprietary ingredients, carefully crafted formulas, and expert winemaking result in vermouth that you can use more of in your cocktails because it is superbly balanced and harmonizes well with other spirits.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Pretty mahogany color. First nosings pick up exotic herbal aromas that are delicately sweet and botanical; later passes reveal deeper, more complex scents of autumn woods, mulled wine and holiday spices. In the mouth, it’s sweet, sour and spicy at entry; by midpalate the range of flavors runs from nutmeg to quinine to muscat grapes to orange rind. Aftertaste is long. The finest sweet vermouth available. 91-95
Historically a dry, herb-infused, and sometimes pleasantly bitter fine wine, today vermouth is indispensable to any modern mixologist. Typically vermouths are Italian if red and sweet and French if golden and drier in character.
Responsible for the vast majority of American wine production, if California were a country, it would be the world’s fourth largest wine-producing nation. The state’s diverse terrain and microclimates allow for an incredible range of red wine styles, and unlike tradition-bound Europe, experimentation is more than welcome here. California wineries range from tiny, family-owned boutiques to massive corporations, and price and production are equally varied. Plenty of inexpensive bulk wine is made in the Central Valley area, while Napa Valley is responsible for some of the world’s most prestigious and expensive “cult” wines.
Each American Viticultural Area (AVA) and sub-AVA of has its own distinct personality, allowing California to produce red wine of every fashion: from bone dry to unctuously sweet, still to sparkling, light and fresh to rich and full-bodied. In the Napa Valley, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc dominate vineyard acreage. Sonoma County is best known for Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Rosé and Zinfandel. The Central Coast has carved out a niche with Rhône Blends based on Grenache and Syrah, while Mendocino has found success with cool climate varieties such as Pinot noir, Riesling and Gewürztraminer. With all the diversity that California wine has to offer, any wine lover will find something to get excited about here.