Giulio Cocchi Vermouth Torino Extra Dry / 500mL

Giulio Cocchi Vermouth di Torino Extra Dry is a pale, dry aromatised wine from Piedmont, built on a Cortese base — the same grape behind Gavi — and a botanical set that leans herbal and citrusy rather than bitter. It carries the Vermouth di Torino appellation and arrives in a 500mL bottle, a format that suits a household making cocktails regularly enough to keep the vermouth fresh.

Lemon peel and Piedmontese mint lead the aroma, with white flowers, green apple and a cool wormwood edge behind them. The palate is dry and light-footed, coriander and cardamom giving a faint spice lift, and the finish is clean, faintly bitter and drier than it first smells.

This is a mixing vermouth first and foremost, and the half-size bottle is the sensible buy for it: a Martini or a Bamboo takes only 20 to 40mL, so a 500mL bottle gets used up while it is still bright rather than sitting half-empty in the fridge door for a season. It also works simply over ice with tonic and a strip of lemon.