One of the more culturally damaging things James Bond ever did—you know, aside from portraying women like disposable sex dolls and equating suave masculinity with chilly sociopathic violence—was that martini order: six parts vodka, one part vermouth. Or maybe it was Alfred Hitchcock, who wanted his martini with “five parts gin and a quick glance at a bottle of vermouth.” Or Winston Churchill’s alleged recipe: 15 parts gin and bow in the direction of France.
“I blame James Bond. I think it was the British who fucked everything up. They like everything booze-forward. But vermouth was actually the original base for many things,” says Jermaine Whitehead, bar manager for Bar Melusine, where the drink list skews heavily toward fortified-wine cocktails. He’s among a growing group of Seattle bartenders who are pushing vermouth and sherry to the forefront of cocktails, instead of using them as bit players.