The person who invented it (Antonio Benedetto Carpano from Turin, Italy) chose to name his concoction "vermouth" in 1786 because he was inspired by the German wine flavoured with wormwood, (herb used in distilling absinthe). The modern German word Wermut (Wermuth in the spelling of Carpano's time) means both wormwood and vermouth. The herbs in vermouth were originally used to mask raw flavours of cheaper wines, imparting a slightly medicinal "tonic" flavour. Vermouth does in fact not have any wormwood in it at all, instead using aromatic herbs and spices such as cardamom, cinnamon, marjoram and chamomile to flavour it. smile

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