Vermouth 3-Mini Tasting Box

Vermouth 3-Piece Mini Tasting Box by Helmut Wermut from Hamburg

The Vermouth 3-piece mini tasting box by Helmut Wermut brings together all three Hamburg varieties in 50 ml bottles: the floral white, the berry-forward red, and the piquant rosé. A vermouth tasting set for anyone who can't decide between the three.

Vermouth 3-piece mini tasting box is the tasting set from Helmut Wermut in Hamburg, in which all three varieties stand side by side in small 50 ml bottles. Together, this adds up to 150 ml, enough for three decent glasses or for an evening of comparing rather than just drinking.

Floral, berry-forward, and piquant, side-by-side in the glass

Vermouth is not a flavor, but a craft. You only truly grasp this once you have three varieties from the same producer standing side by side in front of you.

The white brings the mild sweetness of orange blossom with lavender and meadow herbs. The red relies on ripe blackberry with bay leaf and rosemary and is the driest of the three. The rosé takes a third path with physalis, goji berry, sweet fig, and the spice of red bell pepper.

The same herbal signature, weighted differently three times over: anyone who opens these small bottles one after the other can really hear the difference between the grape variety and the herbal extract. Each of the three small bottles contains 25 ingredients, yet each variety reorders them. The same herbal kitchen thus produces a floral, a dry, and a piquant aperitif, and none of them taste like a compromise.

The gift that needs no explanation

This vermouth tasting set solves two problems at once: the gift-giving dilemma and the question of where to even begin with vermouth.

Through the viewing window in the lid, you can immediately see what it's all about: pale yellow, deep purple, vibrant rosé, surrounded by illustrations of the ingredients from lemon to blackberry. Whoever gives it as a gift doesn't need to say a word. It stays on the table, gets opened, and is sampled all around. Usually, it becomes clear afterward which full-sized bottle will be coming into the house next, and it is often not the one everyone would have guessed beforehand.

For the first evening, a few ice cubes, a lemon zest, and a bottle of tonic water are enough; this set needs nothing more. For those who want to know more, serve the three neat and at room temperature first before mixing. This way, you can taste the herbs before the carbonation masks them.

Handcrafted in Hamburg, wine from the Palatinate

Behind all three bottles is Markus Weiß, who has been producing his "Helmut" in Hamburg since 2017 and has the wine base bottled in the Palatinate.

For each variety, he has coordinated a custom cuvée with Christian from the Bergdolt-Reif & Nett winery: Riesling and Müller-Thurgau for the white, Dornfelder for the red, and Pinot Noir for the rosé. The herbs, fruits, and spices are peeled, cut, and plucked by hand and macerate in alcohol for at least five weeks before being pressed.

All three varieties are multiple award winners; the rosé was named World's Best Semi-Dry at the 2021 World Vermouth Awards. If one tastes particularly good, you can find the full-sized bottle in our white, red, and rosé vermouth listings. More bottles for comparison can be found in our vermouth category. Content: 150 ml in three 50 ml bottles, 17 to 18% vol, contains sulfites.