Noilly Prat - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Noilly Prat was originally a dry, straw-hued vermouth

Vermouth

Vermouth is a fortified wine flavored with various dry ingredients. The modern versions of the beverage were first produced around the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Italy and France...

from Marseillan

Marseillan, Hérault

Marseillan is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France.It lies some west of Montpellier.Marseillan sits on a large salt-water lake, the Étang de Thau and is the southern Entreport for the Canal du Midi....

, in the Hérault

Hérault

Hérault is a department in the south of France named after the Hérault river.-History:Hérault is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...

département of southern France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. Joseph Noilly, a herbalist, developed the first formula in 1813. It was the first example of a dry vermouth and is among the golden, straw and white vermouths generally known as "French Vermouth". Noilly's Red and Ambre versions were introduced in the 1960s and 1980s respectively and are less widely known. Noilly Prat Dry is 18% alcohol by volume.

History

It has long been known that leaving wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

in a barrel alters its characteristics. Wine that was transported long distances in barrels and exposed to the weather became darker in colour and fuller-flavoured. It was to mimic this natural process that Joseph Noilly, in 1813, designed a process that made France's first vermouth. In 1855, his son Louis Noilly and son-in-law Claudius Prat set up the company that became Noilly Prat, moving the business to Marseillan where it remains to this day. The brand was acquired by Martini & Rossi

Martini & Rossi

Martini & Rossi is an Italian multinational alcoholic beverage company primarily associated with the Martini brand of vermouth and also with sparkling wine . It also produces the French vermouth, Noilly Prat.-History:...

in 1971 and is now a part of the Bacardi-Martini family of brands.

Manufacturing process

The process used today is virtually unchanged since the 1850s. Noilly Prat is made exclusively from white grape varieties grown in the Marseillan area, principally Picpoul de Pinet
Piquepoul
Piquepoul or Picpoul is a variety of wine grape grown primarily in the Rhone Valley and Languedoc regions of France. It exists both in dark-skinned and light-skinned versions, as well as a very little grown Piquepoul gris...

and Clairette
Clairette
-People:*Clairette , a French-Canadian actress and singer-Wines:*Clairette de Die AOC, a French sparkling wine appellation*Clairette blanche, a white grape variety* Clairette Ronde, synonym for the grape variety Trebbiano...

. These produce light, fruity wines which are matured in massive Canadian oak casks inside the original storerooms. The wine stays in these casks for 8 months, maturing and absorbing the flavour of the wood, before being transferred to smaller oak barrels which are taken outside and left for a year. Here they are exposed to the sun, wind, and low winter temperatures, while the wine is slowly changing. The result is a wine that is dry, full-bodied and amber coloured, similar to Madeira

Madeira wine

Madeira is a fortified Portuguese wine made in the Madeira Islands. Some wines produced in small quantities in California and Texas are also referred to as "Madeira", or "Madera", although those wines do not conform to the EU PDO regulations...

or Sherry

Sherry

Sherry is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the town of Jerez , Spain. In Spanish, it is called vino de Jerez....

. During the year outside, 6 to 8% of the volume is lost to evaporation, the "angels' share".

Brought back inside and left to rest for a few months, the wines are then blended together into oak casks. A small quantity of Mistelle (grape juice and alcohol) is added to the wines in order to soften them, along with a dash of fruit essence to accentuate their flavour.

In the oak casks, a process of maceration
Maceration
Maceration may refer to:* Maceration , in food preparation* Maceration , a step in wine-making** Carbonic maceration, a wine-making technique* Maceration , in sewage treatment* Maceration , a method of preparing bones...

, supposedly unique to Noilly Prat, takes place over a period of three weeks. A blend of some twenty herbs and spices is added by hand every day. The exact mix of herbs and spices that goes into Noilly Prat is a closely guarded secret, but includes camomile, bitter orange

Orange (fruit)

An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....

peel, nutmeg

Nutmeg

The nutmeg tree is any of several species of trees in genus Myristica. The most important commercial species is Myristica fragrans, an evergreen tree indigenous to the Banda Islands in the Moluccas of Indonesia...

, centaury (Yellow Gentian), coriander

Coriander

Coriander is an annual herb in the family Apiaceae. Coriander is native to southern Europe and North Africa to southwestern Asia. It is a soft, hairless plant growing to tall. The leaves are variable in shape, broadly lobed at the base of the plant, and slender and feathery higher on the...

, and cloves. After a further six weeks, the finished product is ready for bottling and is shipped in tankers to Beaucaire, Gard where it is bottled by Martini & Rossi

Martini & Rossi

Variants

The vast bulk of Noilly Prat is the Original French Dry vermouth, but two special variants are made:

Red Noilly Prat is made in the same exacting way, but with the addition of 30 flavourings, which produce the rich red colour. It is not sold in France, except from the Noilly Prat shop in Marseillan, being produced for export, principally to the USA.

Ambre Noilly Prat is available for purchase from the Noilly Prat shop in Marseillan and specialised stores.

Cocktails

Noilly Prat is often used in cocktails, the most common and well-known of which is probably the Martini

Martini (cocktail)

The martini is a cocktail made with gin and vermouth, and garnished with an olive or a lemon twist. Over the years, the martini has become one of the best-known mixed alcoholic beverages. H. L. Mencken called the martini "the only American invention as perfect as the sonnet" and E. B...

, consisting of one part Noilly Prat to one part gin, with a dash of orange bitters. However, the recipe used for export to the USA was changed in 2009 to a sweeter and more herbal formulation, closer to Noilly's original formula used in Europe. The change in recipe was accompanied by a change in the bottle's design. Some recipes have now substituted a vermouth from Dolin instead of Noilly Prat for making martinis, which is said to be "every bit as good as, although not by any means identical to, the old Noilly".

Cooking with Noilly Prat

Noilly Prat is widely used in cooking, and extensively used for sauces, especially to accompany fish. In his BBC TV series French Odyssey, Rick Stein

Rick Stein

Christopher Richard "Rick" Stein OBE is an English chef, restaurateur and television presenter. He is currently the head chef and co-owner of "Rick Stein at Bannisters" at Mollymook, New South Wales, Australia, owns four restaurants in Padstow, a fish and chip shop in Falmouth, Cornwall and has...

described Noilly Prat as a "true flavour from the Languedoc" and said, "I've done lots of experiments with white wines for fish sauces and I've come to the conclusion that Noilly Prat is the best. In fact, it makes very little difference to the finished sauce how good a white wine is (though this is not the case with red wine). However, the Provençal herbs and spices used to flavour Noilly Prat seem to add flavour to the reduction."

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