Maison Lillet, producers of the French aperitifs Lillet Blanc and Lillet Rouge, announced their first new product in 50 years: Lillet Rosé. Lillet Rosé has just launched on the public market, but it was introduced to the industry last year, garnering some serious recognition: it was awarded a Chairman’s Trophy at the 2011 Ultimate Beverage Challenge, and a 94/Excellent Rating and a Gold Medal in the 2011 San Francisco Spirits Competition. Lillet Rosé is created from a blend of the red and white Grand Cru Bordeaux wine varietals used to produce Lillet Blanc and Lillet Rouge. Those varietals include Semillon, Sauvignon...

I’m a big fan of simple cocktails, in part because they’re easy to make with what’s on hand, but also because they prove that good drinking doesn’t require a handful of fancy syrups, liqueurs and garnishes.  My appreciation for the basic combination of spirit, fortified wine and bitters—seen in classic drinks like the Martini and Manhattan—led me to the Palmetto, a cocktail combining rum and vermouth. Most Palmetto recipes call for equal parts white rum and dry vermouth, plus a couple dashes of aromatic bitters.  So I whipped one up and… didn’t like it.  I crafted the drink two more times...

The Tailspin is a lovely little cocktail I first came across in How to Booze: Exquisite Cocktails and Unsound Advice.  Combining gin, sweet vermouth, green chartreuse and a touch of Campari, the Tailspin is a flavor-packed cocktail colored with interesting hues of both green and red. For a drink with some very potent flavors, namely chartreuse and Campari, the Tailspin is surprisingly well balanced, layering its flavors quite well.  Sweeter and more herbal than a Last Word or Negroni, it’s an interesting little concoction.  And composed of ingredients that any respectable bar will carry—plus many well-stocked home bars—it’s easy to make. The...

While yesterday was a rye day, today was most definitely a gin day.  With an assortment of gins at hand (Plymouth, Tanqueray Ten, Sapphire, Aviation and Martin Miller’s) I wanted to drink either something new, or something I hadn’t had in awhile.  Enter Esquire Drinks. I perused several gin-based cocktail recipes before landing on the Hearst, a fine cocktail that I haven’t had the pleasure of knowing for at least a few years.  Comprised of gin, sweet vermouth—rather than the classic dry vermouth and gin pairing—orange bitters and aromatic bitters, it’s a well-balanced cocktail that packs a boozy wallop. The gin and sweet...

Once per month cocktail fiends band together to create a booze-soaked collection of cocktail recipes for Mixology Monday.  This month’s host is Sonja of Thinking of Drinking, who chose absinthe as the theme.  From Sonja – The topic for February is Absinthe. That much maligned, misunderstood, mistreated spirit, suddenly plentiful again in the US and other parts of the world. Absinthe played a role, whether large or small, in a variety of great cocktails from the 1800s and early 1900s – the Sazerac, Absinthe Suissesse, Corpse Reviver No. 2… I’m getting thirsty. So let’s celebrate absinthe’s history, and it’s future,...

Ah Valentine’s Day, that special holiday when couples spend money and singles spend time alone.  Whichever boat you’re in this year, you might as well add a naked lady to the mix. Despite the name, the Naked Lady cocktail is actually somewhat classy, and an inexpensive Valentine’s date. It’s  an aperitif with elements of the aromatic (vermouth), the sweet (grenadine, apricot brandy) and the sour (lemon juice).  The result is a well-balanced cocktail with a name that’s sure to up your street cred, like when you tell your friends about your evening at home with five, maybe six naked ladies. Naked Lady 1.5 oz...

While there’s always a place for intricate cocktails boasting fun ingredients like Benedictine, Orgeat or Maraschino liqueur, sometimes you just want to simplify your life and your drinks. Comprised of five simple ingredients found in any reasonably stocked home bar, the Bronx Cocktail is basically a perfect martini with orange juice added.  It’s a classic, pre-prohibition cocktail that’s a bit fruity—but not overly sweet—and its base spirit, gin, is a good carrier for both the sweet and dry vermouth. This innocuous looking cocktail packs quite a punch, and the addition of OJ makes it a healthy alternative to not drinking cocktails. Ingredients: 2 ounces...

Many cocktails have predecessors, but perhaps none was quite as important as the under appreciated Martinez, a gin and sweet vermouth concoction that helped pave the way for the ubiquitous martini. As with many cocktails, origins of the Martinez are a hazy mess of conflicting stories.  Some say it was created by a gent named Martinez, while others claim it was crafted by famed bartender Jerry Thomas for a fellow traveling to Martinez, California.  Both sound reasonable enough to me, but whatever its origins, it’s another good excuse to combine gin and maraschino liqueur, which work well in drinks like the...

No drink quite embodies the Kentucky Derby like the Mint Julep, the classic concoction of bourbon, sugar and mint served in an iconic copper cup.  But another cocktail, simply known as The Derby, was created to commemorate the Kentucky Derby.  The below drink recipe is taken from The Bartender’s Guide by Trader Vic. The Derby 1 ounce bourbon 1/2 ounce sweet vermouth 1/2 ounce orange curacao 3/4 ounce fresh lime juice Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.  Garnish with a lime. Also see: Kentucky Derby Cocktails ...

The word “scofflaw” applies to one who flouts the law.  During the dark days of Prohibition, this term was a popular one, thrown at those brave, thirsty souls forced into hidden speakeasies by their own government. With a disapproving nod to the west, Harry’s New York Bar in Paris created the Scofflaw cocktail in 1924, giving a new, tasty meaning to the term.  Traditionally composed of rye, dry vermouth, fresh lemon juice and grenadine, some modern interpretations have substituted Canadian blended whiskey for straight rye and Chartreuse for grenadine.  I prefer to stick with the original recipe. The Scofflaw 1 1/2 ounces rye 1...