If you want to know how a South London vermouth is made, the short answer is this: it comes down to base wine, botanicals, maceration, careful blending, resting, clarification and hand bottling. At Asterley Bros, a batch of ESTATE takes roughly 40 days from weighing the first botanical to bottling, and each step changes the smell, bitterness, colour and feel in the glass.
If I had to pick one bottle from our range to show that process at work, I would reach for SCHOFIELD'S first. I reach for it because its blend of English white wines and floral, citrus-led botanicals shows the production choices in a clean, direct way. ESTATE makes the same point from the other side, with English Pinot Noir and 34 botanicals for a sweeter, rosso-style profile. Together, these two make the process easy to taste.
Here is the article in brief:
- Base wine matters as much as botanicals
- Wormwood sets the bitter core
- Botanicals are tested in bench blends before a full batch
- Maceration strength is a choice: 75% ABV for ESTATE, 40% for SCHOFIELD'S
- Sweetness, acidity and spirit are adjusted together
- The blend then rests before clarification and filtration
- Bottling is the last quality check
- You can spot the work in the glass by looking at clarity, aroma, bitterness and finish
A quick side-by-side helps show the two house styles:
| Vermouth | Base wine | Botanicals | Style | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SCHOFIELD'S | Blend of English white wines | Floral and citrus-led, including rose, camomile, jasmine and lime leaf | Dry | £26.95 |
| ESTATE | English Pinot Noir from Gusbourne, Kent | 34 | Sweet, rosso-style | £26.95 |
What follows is not brand history or a tasting note. I am looking at how the liquid gets made, and how those choices show up when you pour a glass.
Botanicals and base ingredients: where flavour begins
Vermouth starts with two decisions: which botanicals to use, and which wine can carry them.
The role of herbs, roots, peels and spices in aroma and bitterness
Each botanical has a job to do. In ESTATE, wormwood brings the bitter core and gives the blend its frame, orange and rosemary bring citrus lift and herbal freshness, and English hops and gentian add depth without swamping the brighter herbal notes.
That mix makes the style fresher, more aromatic, and less sweet than many classic versions.
Why the base wine matters as much as the botanicals
Once the botanicals are set, the base wine needs to hold them up rather than bury them. It shapes the drink just as much as the infused ingredients do.
ESTATE uses English Pinot Noir, while SCHOFIELD'S uses a blend of English white wines to keep the aromatics precise and bright.
Fortification with neutral spirit lifts the alcohol to a stable level and helps hold the aromatics steady in the blend. Sweetening softens the finish and sets the style. English vermouth often carries less sugar than many classic equivalents, which leaves a cleaner finish and gives the herbal notes more room.
Only then does the maker know if the recipe is ready for maceration.
Trial extracts and bench blends before the final recipe
Before a full batch goes ahead, each botanical is first steeped as a test extract, then brought together in bench blends at the workbench. This shows how differently each ingredient extracts, especially wormwood, which gives the bitter backbone.
Bench blending also reveals interactions that are hard to spot on paper. Dilution is adjusted, bitterness is checked against sweetness, and aromatic clarity is judged at each step, so the final recipe rests on evidence rather than guesswork. When Rob and Jim Berry developed DISPENSE, they macerated 100 botanicals in 100 jam jars for 28 days, then tasted their way through every one. ESTATE and SCHOFIELD'S show two different balance points reached through the same kind of bench work.
That work sets up the maceration stage, where flavour is drawn into the spirit.
Maceration and blending: how flavour is built and shaped
Maceration: how botanicals are steeped to extract flavour
Once the bench blend is set, the recipe moves into full maceration. For ESTATE, all 34 botanicals go into the tanks together, in organic grain spirit cut with water to 75% ABV, for 21 days, stirred three or four times a day to keep extraction even. SCHOFIELD'S takes a lighter touch: 40% ABV for seven days, stirred daily. Both finish with the botanicals pressed to release everything they have taken up. That helps keep bitterness clean and lets the aromatics stay clear rather than muddled.
Balancing sweetness, bitterness, acidity and alcohol in the blend
When maceration is done, blending starts. The infused spirit is brought together with the base wine, then sugar and spirit are adjusted until the profile feels settled as a whole. ESTATE is sweetened with demerara sugar, never caramel.
Bitterness goes in bit by bit. Add too much wormwood extract too soon and the blend turns harsh. Sugar does more than shift flavour; it changes texture too. A low-sugar blend feels lean and dry, while more sugar gives a rounder, more coating mouthfeel. The base wine’s natural acidity keeps that sweetness in check. Without enough acidity, even a modest amount of sugar can leave the drink tasting flat or cloying. The fortifying spirit lifts the ABV to a stable level and can also nudge how bitterness lands on the palate, either sharpening it or softening it slightly.
What you want at the end is balance, not a loud note pushing everything else aside. Bitterness and sweetness need to work off each other, the aroma needs to stay focused, and the finish should make the next sip feel like an easy choice.
How SCHOFIELD'S and ESTATE show two different balance points
Those choices lead to two quite different house styles. The dry white blend keeps sugar low, with floral and herbal notes pushed to the front and a crisp, dry finish that suits a Martini or White Negroni. The Pinot Noir-based sweet vermouth has more body and a rounder mouthfeel, with the herbal side still clear rather than lost under sweetness. That makes it a natural fit for a Negroni or simply poured over ice with an orange slice.
Once the blend is set, it is left to rest before clarification and bottling.
Resting, clarification and bottling: the final production steps
Resting the blend so flavours settle and integrate
Once the blend is set, it is left to rest in tank rather than bottled straight away. That pause matters. It gives the wine, spirit, sugar, acid and botanicals time to come together, so the drink tastes like one whole instead of a set of parts jostling for attention. For our vermouths, that settling period helps keep the profile clear and balanced. Skip it, or rush it, and the result can feel out of step: bright at first, then oddly bitter or sweet in a way that does not sit with the rest of the sip.
There is no fixed timetable here. Some producers rest a blend for a few days, while others leave it for several weeks. Once the blend has settled, it is ready for clarification without losing its shape.
Clarification and filtration: removing solids without losing character
After resting, the blend still holds suspended particles such as botanical fines, waxes and protein haze. Those can make the liquid look cloudy, and over time they can affect stability. Clarification deals with that haze without stripping out aroma.
A common step is cold stabilisation at around −8 °C, followed by filtration to remove tartrate crystals and other haze-forming particles. Depending on how much haze needs dealing with, producers may also use fining agents such as bentonite or gelatine. The goal is simple: a bright, stable vermouth that still smells alive and open. At Asterley Bros we fine ESTATE with bentonite, a mineral clay, which keeps the range vegan, then filter it to 1 micron before bottling. SCHOFIELD'S is not fined at all.
After filtration, attention shifts to packaging the batch without giving away that freshness.
Bottling as the last quality-control step
Bottling is the final check before release. Fill levels, closure integrity, and the absence of haze or sediment are all checked before the batch goes out. With a wine-based drink like vermouth, oxidation control matters a great deal at this point. Too much headspace, or a closure that is not seated properly, can change the aroma and the colour that the drinker finds in the bottle.
At Asterley Bros, every bottle is filled by hand, and the batch only leaves once fill, closure and clarity all pass the check.
Our masterclasses in South London show how these production choices appear in the glass.
What to look for when tasting a South London vermouth
The signs of a well-made vermouth in the glass
After blending, resting and bottling, the maker’s decisions should show up plainly in the glass.
Start with the look of it. Hold the glass to the light and check for bright clarity and steady colour. Give it a gentle swirl and watch the tears. A sweet vermouth like ESTATE should move slowly and evenly, not cling to the glass like syrup. If it does, that can point to too much sweetness.
Then move to the nose. Smell it first without swirling so you catch the top notes straight away: citrus peel, white flowers, that first herbal lift. Swirl, then smell again. Now you’re looking for the deeper layer: dried herbs, spice or earthy notes. SCHOFIELD'S shows its dry style through floral lift and clean citrus. ESTATE leans rounder, with fruit and spice first, then bitterness underneath. In both cases, the aroma should feel focused and balanced, not perfumed or medicinal.
If the aroma is in order, the palate should follow the same path: sweetness first, bitterness second, then a clean finish.
On the palate, bitterness should arrive after the first sweetness, then ease off rather than hang around harshly. Sweetness should feel measured. You want enough to round out the botanicals, but not so much that it hides the detail or leaves a syrupy finish. Acidity gives the wine a bit of lift and stops it feeling heavy. Texture matters too. It should feel even and settled: silky or softly velvety, with a light tannic grip in richer red styles like ESTATE. If it feels thin, it may lack depth. If it feels heavy or sticky, the balance is off.
Key takeaways from behind the bottle
Everything covered in this article (ingredient selection, maceration, blending, resting and bottling) leads straight to what you taste in the glass. If a vermouth smells layered, feels balanced and finishes cleanly, the work behind it has almost certainly been handled with care. If one part takes over, or the finish feels blunt, something in that chain has likely been rushed or judged poorly.
A simple way to spot those differences is to taste the same vermouth three ways:
- Neat at room temperature
- Chilled
- Over ice with citrus
Each one shows you something else about how the structure and aromatics stand up. To taste those production choices with a bit of guidance, our Welcome to Vermouth masterclass, at our South London production space, includes a tasting of the full range and a bottle of English vermouth to take home.
FAQs
Are the botanicals macerated together or separately?
For ESTATE, all 34 botanicals go into the tanks together, in organic grain spirit at 75% ABV for 21 days, stirred three or four times a day, so they extract alongside each other. Separate macerations are another approach, used when a maker wants to control each ingredient on its own before blending.
Either way, the aim is the same: delicate aromas kept intact, and no single flavour taking over the glass.
How does the base wine affect the final flavour?
The base wine is the foundation of the vermouth. It is the canvas the botanicals sit on, and its acidity, sugar and structure all shape the final flavour through that relationship.
A high-acid wine keeps things bright and lively, while the grape variety sets the body and general character. Get the wine’s own traits, such as tannin and fruit, working with the style you want, and the result feels balanced and layered rather than pulled in different directions.
What should I look for when tasting vermouth?
Focus on the balance between three core elements: the base wine, the botanicals, and the sweetness. Start with the wine itself. Notice its character first, whether that means crisp acidity in a dry style or a bit more body in a sweeter one.
Then move to the botanical profile and the finish. Wormwood brings the signature bitterness, while citrus, herbs and spices add aroma and depth. The finish should sit in the middle, with sweetness and bitterness keeping each other in check.