The Martini & Rossi Brand Goes Beyond James Bond

This is the story of a famous brand that makes a famous wine. That famous wine is also an integral ingredient in a famous cocktail. However, before we can talk about Martini & Rossi vermouth, we must address a certain cocktail commonly ordered by a man named Bond—James Bond. Ian Fleming’s swashbuckling MI6 agent was a complicated man, but his drink of choice was simple: the vodka martini. (It required a splash of vermouth and, as we know, was shaken and not stirred.) So far as the vodka brands go, 007 sipped everything from Stolichnaya to Smirnoff and Wolfschmidt. But the vermouth? There's just the one. Freeze the frame in the drinking scenes of most any classic Bond film—Dr. No, Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever among them—and you’ll clearly see a signature green bottle of Martini & Rossi sitting on the cocktail tray. The halo effect from Mr. Bond has been good to M&R, which actually makes a line of liqueurs and sparkling wines, though it’s best known for its bianco and rosso vermouths. The Turin, Italy-based, Bacardi-owned brand has sold over a million cases of it this year. But ask North America brand director Elizabeth Costa de Rusch to explain vermouth’s current popularity, and she’ll tell you not about 007, but Covid-19. “During the pandemic, people discovered that vermouth was a key ingredient in their favorite cocktails,” she said. “As people clung onto that whole mixology trend, they had to go buy all the ingredients. So we had a huge uptick in vermouth volume because people were experimenting at home.” Which means that, as Americans ferreted out the ingredients for their Negronis and Rob Roys, they found their way to the world’s bestselling brand of vermouth. What’s curious is that not everyone looks at vermouth the same way. In much of Europe, this fortified wine infused with botanicals like mint, coriander, ginger and cinnamon has long been a drink all by itself. Ever since Alessandro Martini and Luigi Rossi began distilling back in 1863, vermouth has been a popular aperitif, sipped before dinner to stimulate the appetite. Americans, by contrast, have historically regarded vermouth as the secondary ingredient in cocktails—especially the martini, which emerged in the late 19th century and became the Roaring ’20s drink of choice, Prohibition be damned. Today, however, it’s not just retro-cocktail enthusiasts heading out buy to M&R. With an ABV of 15% (compared to 40% for vodka), vermouth fits nicely into the trend of lighter daytime drinking. Earlier this year, M&R introduced Fiero, an orangey vermouth that’s uniquely suitable for spritzes. Not that James Bond would ever be caught dead ordering one of those. A winning formula Martini & Rossi has made some clever marketing moves over its 150 years. The first, arguably, was trademarking the name Martini in 1922. The second was hiring artists to create incomparably elegant advertising. And then there was the 1968 decision to get into motorsports—specifically, Formula 1, the top tier of international automotive competition. For the next five decades, Martini Racing gave the vermouth brand an air of daring and glamour. While M&R exited the sport in 2018, Costa de Rusch said the racing lineage remains an indelible piece of the brand’s image—part of “the aura of Italy,” she said, that “has helped keep it relevant.” An Italian romance Heritage looms large in Martini & Rossi’s 150-year history, from this 1915 employee group shot (1) to harvesting grapes in the late 1800s (2). Though the company makes a variety of alcoholic beverages, the signature product is the extra dry vermouth in the green bottle (3). Careful to cultivate a sophisticated image, M&R always hired top artists for its advertising (4) and bottled its goods by hand (5). Thanks to James Bond (6) a proper martini always includes a splash of M&R vermouth, though these days a Fiero and tonic (7) may be more to millennial tastes.

Perspective

Timeless Cool of Martini & Rossi Goes Beyond James Bond

The Italian wine in 007's signature drink is shaking up cocktail culture all over again

Robert Klara

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Robert Klara