Once we final went searching for the last word Negroni, approach again in 2017, the drink occupied a really completely different place within the cocktail pantheon. Removed from the aperitivo juggernaut it’s in the present day, the drink was preventing for a spot on menus; Negroni Week was solely 4 years into its ascendency and the notion that the drink may very well be something apart from equal elements was nonetheless novel.
Now, helped alongside by the drink world’s timeless enthusiasm for Italy, the Negroni is among the many most ubiquitous basic cocktails, a favourite canvas for bartenders to experiment with—turning it tropical, ageing it and swapping out the bottom spirit. If it’s trending in drinks, there’s a Negroni to show it. With the cocktail in fixed flux, we questioned whether or not the archetypal Negroni of 2024 can be completely different than the one we topped again in 2017. It’s towards this backdrop that we not too long ago convened at Attaboy with common supervisor Haley Traub, Coqodaq bar supervisor Matt Chavez and spirits skilled Joaquín Simó to go searching for the Negroni that finest displays the tastes of in the present day.
Virtually instantly it turned clear that the Negroni has splintered into two factions: the Negroni as aperitivo—a real pre-dinner drink, one thing to stimulate the palate with out feeling too boozy, as a result of, as Simó noticed, “I’ve a bottle of wine coming”—and the cocktail bar Negroni, a drink faraway from the context of eating, which might afford to be extra spirit-forward.
In each instances, what the judges have been in search of aligned. “I need the gin and bitter to shine,” defined Traub, “and the vermouth to convey a touch of sweetness, however principally texture and physique.” However that doesn’t imply the candy vermouth must be an afterthought. As Chavez defined, “I like a vermouth with character, too.”
The unanimous winner happy each roles of the fashionable Negroni. Anthony Schmidt’s Negroni from J & Tony’s Low cost Cured Meats and Negroni Warehouse in San Diego is gin-forward on paper, with an oz. of the botanical spirit paired with three quarters of an oz. every of Cocchi Vermouth di Torino and Campari. However the gin of selection, Sipsmith London Dry, was intentionally chosen partly for its ABV—which at 41.6 % is barely above the usual 40 %—however with out the boozy chunk of one thing increased. A spritz of lemon oil over the floor of the drink supplied the specified aromatics whereas half an orange wheel inserted within the glass nodded to the best way the drink is often served in Italy. The end result was an exceptionally balanced cocktail, every aspect detectable in acceptable measure. It’s a Negroni that may do all of it.
Second place went to Jeffrey Morgenthaler of Portland’s Pacific Customary, whose equal-parts building was recognized as such instantly by the judges, who discovered it to finest fulfill the {qualifications} for the pre-dinner Negroni function. In comparison with the gin-forward builds that made up the vast majority of entries, this one—Beefeater, Campari, Cinzano Rosso—felt rounder and richer, with out veering in direction of syrupy. As Chavez described it, it was “the poster little one for the basic Negroni.”
Taking third place was the home Negroni of Dante in New York Metropolis, which beforehand took the highest spot at our final blind tasting in 2017. Right this moment, the drink—made with an oz. of Bombay Sapphire, and three quarters of an oz. every of Campari and Martini & Rossi candy vermouth—holds up. The upper proof of the gin (47 % ABV) paired with a spirit-forward construct yields a barely extra austere interpretation of the drink that one taster described as “a purple sauce-joint Martini—however executed nicely.” One other described it as “a gin-lover’s Negroni.” It appeared to show that the fashionable Negroni needn’t do all of it. Typically it’s sufficient to know what you’re doing and do it nicely.
