Inside Monte Carlo Vermouth: The Monaco Vermouth Winning Gold From Lyon to London

Piedmont fruit, Grasse botanicals, and roses picked in the Principality's own gardens: how a five-year-old house built a vermouth the juries keep giving gold.

Vermouth is having its moment of formal recognition. In December 2025, the Italian agriculture ministry officially recognised the Consorzio del Vermouth di Torino as the body governing the protected ‘Vermouth di Torino’ designation, a category of some six million bottles a year, exported to more than eighty countries. And now it is codified as firmly as any Piedmont wine. The aromatised wine that spent three decades as a supporting player splashed in a martini, its bottles tucked in the back of the trolley, has become a category with rules.

It has also become a category with newcomers, driven by the cocktail renaissance, the long shift toward lower-alcohol drinking, and a wave of small-batch, heritage-led bottlings. Most of them come from the places you would expect: Turin, Chambéry, Catalonia, the historic vermouth towns reasserting themselves.

Monte Carlo Vermouth comes from somewhere less obvious. Launched in 2021 by the Monaco-based entrepreneur, Evgeny Strzhalkovskiy, it is a small-batched botanical apéritif made in two expressions: built on a Piedmont base but finished in the Principality. A vermouth that Monaco can call its own that has taken gold at international competitions from Lyon to London since its first release.

Does Monaco have its own vermouth?

Monaco has one vermouth of its own: Monte Carlo Vermouth, a small-batch botanical apéritif from Maison Eugène René, launched in 2021 under an exclusive licence from State Brands of Monaco to use the protected "Monte-Carlo" name. It is made in Italy rather than in the Principality, drawing on three regions for its flavour profile: a Piedmontese base wine, botanicals blended in Grasse, and rose petals from Monaco’s rose garden.

It comes in two expressions, a rosso and a bianco, both bottled at 17% ABV. The bianco is built on a Moscato d’Asti DOCG base from Piedmont, the rosso on a Langhe Nebbiolo DOC: both aromatic, low in alcohol, and delicate enough to frame the botanicals without being lost to them. That balance of floral presence without dominance is the traditional foundation of Italian vermouth.

That three-region combination is the whole idea, and it took a while for anyone to have it. The Principality has a licensed name recognised in every duty-free hall on earth, a hotel bar culture that predates the cocktail revival by a century, and, until 2021, no premium vermouth made for or in it.

"Monaco had a great many things, but not its own vermouth," says Strzhalkovskiy. "We set out to make one properly."

What is Monte Carlo Vermouth’s award record?

Monte Carlo Vermouth has won gold at five of the major international drinks competitions since its 2021 launch, across both its expressions.

The bianco took gold at the Concours International de Lyon in 2023, and the rosso took gold there the following year. Both expressions took gold at the London Spirits Competition in 2024. The rosso took gold at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles in the same year. At the IWSC in 2024 the bianco took gold and the rosso bronze; at 1001 Dégustations in 2025 that order reversed, with gold to the rosso and silver to the bianco.

For a house five years old with no distillery of its own and no marketing to speak of, it is a conspicuous run and has earned it a place in the one arena a new brand cannot buy its way into.

"We entered quietly and let the juries speak," says Strzhalkovskiy. "Gold from Lyon to London says more than anything we could put on the label ourselves."

The full record, with a link to each competition's published result:

How is Monte Carlo Vermouth made?

Monte Carlo Vermouth is made in small batches across three places, each chosen for what it does better than anywhere else.

The bianco base is a Moscato d'Asti DOCG wine from Piedmont, the rosso a Langhe Nebbiolo DOC: both aromatic, low in alcohol, and delicate enough to frame the botanicals without being lost to them. That balance of floral presence without dominance is the traditional foundation of Italian vermouth, and Monte Carlo Vermouth builds it from the same Piedmont fruit that gave the category its start. The botanical blend is composed in Grasse, the perfume capital of the Côte d'Azur, where the working assumption is that aroma is a discipline rather than an accident. And the finishing element comes from Monaco itself: rose petals hand-picked in the Principality's rose garden, used with the agreement of the Government Princier.

It is bottled at 17% ABV and carries the protected "Monte-Carlo" name under licence. A permission granted, not a marketing ploy.

Is Monte Carlo Vermouth good to drink on its own?

Both expressions are designed to be drunk neat or over ice, not only mixed. That is a deliberate choice, not a claim after the fact: a vermouth intended to disappear into a negroni is made differently from one expected to hold a glass by itself.

The rosso leads with an unusual nose of incense, patchouli and sweet spices, closer to the perfumer’s register than the confected sweetness that often defines the category. The bianco is sweeter on the nose, with citrus notes to lift it and a palate of apple, cherry blossom and elderflower.

Who makes Monte Carlo Vermouth?

Monte Carlo Vermouth is produced by Maison Eugène René, the French company Evgeny Strzhalkovskiy founded in 2021 to develop wine and spirit brands.

Strzhalkovskiy is a Monaco-based entrepreneur whose portfolio also includes the historic Piedmont winery, Scarpa, alongside Scarpa Villas, Trinity Monaco and Fincher & Co. in New Zealand. The Piedmont connection is not incidental: the same region that supplies Scarpa's Barolo and Barbaresco vineyards supplies the Moscato d'Asti at the base of the vermouth.

"It sits in the same portfolio as Scarpa, but is definitively its own house, with its own craft," says Strzhalkovskiy. "Monaco deserved a vermouth of its own, not a version of something else."

For more information on Monte Carlo Vermouth and its two expressions, visit montecarlovermouth.com.

Monte Carlo Vermouth at a glance

• What it is: a small-batch vermouth in two expressions, rosso and bianco
• Launched: 2021
• Producer: Maison Eugène René, founded by Evgeny Strzhalkovskiy
• Base: Moscato d'Asti DOCG from Piedmont (bianco), Langhe Nebbiolo DOC (rosso)
• Botanicals: blended in Grasse, finished with rose petals from Monaco's Roseraie
• Strength: 17% ABV
• Name: "Monte-Carlo" used under licence from State Brands of Monaco
• Awards: gold at the Concours International de Lyon, London Spirits Competition, Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, IWSC and 1001 Dégustations since 2021
• Availability: eight countries, approximately 40 restaurants and shops across France and Monaco

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