Vermout

No, I did not make a mistake, the spelling in the Savoie goes without the final h. A Chambéry gentleman by the name of Joseph Chavasse started vermout-making after a long stay in some Turin cellar. What he ended up with, however, was a very dry wine quite different from its sweetish Italian cousin and containing a lot more mountain herbs. Vermout was “officialized” in France in 1930 by a court order, of all things. When I was growing up in Paris, it was called Chambéry because several houses from Chambéry, the oldest one now way over a century old, were preparing it.