Carpano Punt E Mes 75cl

Bittersweet, bold, and unapologetically Italian, Carpano Punt e Mes is the bottle you reach for when a regular sweet vermouth feels too polite. It’s got that classic red-vermouth richness, then it swings in with a firm bitter edge that keeps every sip interesting, especially in a Negroni or a Boulevardier.

• Nose: Dark orange peel, cola spice, dried herbs, and a whiff of gentian-like bitterness
• Taste: Toffee and burnt sugar up front, then cherry-like fruit, wormwood herbs, and a punchy bitter bite that wakes up your palate
• Finish: Long and pleasantly bracing, with citrus zest, spicy botanicals, and that lingering “one more sip” bitterness

If you’re building drinks at home, this is your cheat code for instant complexity. Swap it in anywhere you’d use sweet vermouth and you’ll get more contrast, more structure, and a way more grown-up balance. Your Negroni turns darker and moodier, your Manhattan gets a bittersweet backbone, and even a simple highball with soda suddenly feels like you tried.

This sits in that liqueur-ish lane because it’s not just wine, it’s wine plus a whole cast of botanicals doing the most. Think of it like sweet vermouth with a backbone, rich enough to sip over ice, bitter enough to keep you from getting bored.

It also plays ridiculously well with food. Salty snacks, olives, chips, charcuterie, hard cheese, anything fatty or savoury, the bitterness cuts through and resets your appetite like a palate reboot.

Pour it over ice with an orange slice when you want an easy pre-dinner drink, or use it to toughen up your favourite classic cocktails without learning a new recipe.

Fun Fact: The name “Punt e Mes” literally means “a point and a half” in Piedmontese dialect, a nod to the original order, one point of sweetness and half a point of bitterness.