Name: Celebration
Total time: 3 min
Cuisine: Cocktail
Ingredients: 30 ml Cognac (brandy); 30 ml Rubino/Rosso/Rojo vermouth; 30 ml Red bitter liqueur; 1 dash Orange bitters

Ingredients

1 fl oz

Cognac (brandy)

1 fl oz

Rubino/Rosso/Rojo (sweet, fruity) vermouth

1 fl oz

Italian red bitter liqueur

1 dash

Orange Bitters by Angostura

How to make

Glass

Prepare

Select and pre-chill a COUPE GLASS.

Prepare garnish of orange zest twist.

Method

STIR all ingredients with ice.

FINE STRAIN into chilled glass.

Garnish

EXPRESS orange zest twist over the cocktail and use as garnish.

Flavour Profile

No alcohol

Medium

Boozy

Sweet

Medium

Dry/sour

Health & Nutrition

Nutrition:

One serving of Celebration contains 180 calories

Alcohol content:

1.4 standard drinks
21.79% alc./vol. (43.57° proof)
19.7 grams of pure alcohol

Allergens:

Recipe contains the following allergens:

Rubino/Rosso/Rojo (sweet, fruity) vermouth — Sulphur Dioxide/Sulphites

Review

One of our most popular cocktails from Thanksgiving through to the end of the December holiday period. Reminiscent of a brandy-based Negroni served straight-up, this is an appropriate cocktail for any celebration. (Your choice of vermouth will make or break this cocktail, which was originally made with a rich, expressive rubino vermouth.)

Comments & Discussion

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Justin Aniello 36w

Nice warmer and subtler version of a Negroni, get more of that Campari citrus flavor without the gin competing.

Chris Dimal 37w

More like a Brandy based Boulevardier. Still nice and festive. I remember this being 4.5*, so I wonder why did it become downgraded to 4!

Chris Dimal 37w

I almost forgot, I bartended a Christmas party once and I used this cocktail. People really enjoyed it. So huge props and credit to Devis d'Ercole for this libation.

Robert Spain 49w

Very good. First time I used sherry brandy and it was overly sweet. I preferred it with Cognac, or another drier brandy.

Martin Schwartz 1y

I wouldn't compare this to a Negroni (one of my favorites) but I think it's a more genteel version of a Boulevardier. The cognac doesn't pack the punch of the bonded and cask strength Bourbons I usually use. I did enjoy this cocktail, though.

Juan Hatton 1y

Bitter, sweet, loveeeeely.

John CARR Premium Member 1y

Tried both spec and CB’s Valentino style. Reading the description for Martini rubino vermouth, I split the Campari with Select, actual vermouth was carpano. Two dashes of my favourite Bitter Truth orange bitters. Wonderful orange notes balancing the richness and bittersweetness of the other ingredients. I combined remy Martin and Camus cognacs to happy effect. A fitting celebratory libation for the end of my working year!

John CARR Premium Member 1y

Cocchi vermouth do Torino I found too bitter here.

Marcus Burckhardt 1y

Agreed. Tried with cocchi (only sweet vermouth I had at home) in the Valentino version and found it too bitter.

John CARR Continue thread (1 reply)

Chris Brislawn 1y

My Holiday Special Edition Celebration, which was as dark as a Manhattan, consisted of Camus VSOP "Elegance," Tempus Fugit Gran Classico Bitter, and Tempus Fugit Alessio Rosso Vermouth in 3:2:2 proportions, with Angostura Orange Bitters. As Kristi remarked, "This is NOT for amateurs!"

John CARR Premium Member 1y

sounds potent! I haven't tried the Gran Classico, but it looks delicious! ... and looks like your recipe is nudging it back towards a more classical negroni... yum! ... re our previous discussion of aromatised wines, have you tried adding raw cinchona bark to Lillet Blanc, as per Simon's page on Kinas? I found it very successful to increase bitterness while maintaining flavour profile of sauv blanc wine with orange liqueur sweeteners. Added 1.25 ml of freshly ground bark, which seemed a good flavour balance and managed the quinine levels appropriately for safety. Obtained the bark as chips through a local online supplier and ground in mortar and pestle.

Chris Brislawn Continue thread (1 reply)

Chris Brislawn 8w

I should have referred to 2:1:1 proportions as "Boulevardier style" since Valentinos are nominally 4:1:1, which is quite lean. I finally got some Martini & Rossi Riserva Speciale Rubino Vermouth (while traveling in Portland Oregon!) and was able to pair it with their Riserva Speciale Bitter in an Independence Day Celebration using Braastad VSOP. What a combo: just the right balance of sweet and bitter with neither showing to excess, and the complexity of the vermouth and the bitter pair up like they were meant to be combined this way. Don't know if this was how D'Ercole originally designed it but this version alone merits another half star.

Caspian Berggren Premium Member 1y

If you like a Negroni, you'll like it. If you don't, you won't. Personally I think Negroni's are too bitter so I doubled the cognac and added a skosh of Licor 43 to "simulate" the flavours of Carpano Antica. Still a bit too bitter but a lot more to my style.

Simon Sedgley Premium Member 1y

This is lovely but a bit sweet for us. So we added 20ml Antica Torino dry vermouth. Still fitted snugly in our Nick and Nora glasses.

Chris Brislawn 2y

Very good as written but also works great Valentino-style with (2:1:1) proportions (1.5 oz cognac, 3/4 oz each vermouth and red bitter). Used Antica Formula and Martini & Rossi Riserva Speciale Bitter. Served it in DOF glasses with both orange and lemon twists. Excellent!

Caspian Berggren Premium Member 1y

Agree on the Valentino-style. It helps elevate the cognac and makes it into less of a cognac Negroni.

Chris Brislawn 1y

Thanks. We just revisited this over Thanksgiving (last Thursday) with Carpano Classico and Tempus Fugit Bitter. I frequently find "equal-parts-of-everything" cocktails to be muddy and overly sweet or imbalanced. It seems to have been a thing back in the early days of mixology, when all of this was new. Building a drink by choosing a base liquor (even a split base) and then adding smaller, designed amounts of flavorful and sweet/sour/bitter contributions chosen for their ability to play together nicely elevates the added ingredients as well as the base. The 4:1:1 Valentino proportions are pretty lean but 2:1:1 seems like a good starting point for many drinks with a base and two complementary additives.

John CARR Continue thread (1 reply)

Marie-Therese Straus 1y

I just made this using your proportions and it was delicious and very balanced. We'll be using this recipe often throughout the winter holidays, I think.

Celebration

How to make

Glass

Prepare

Method

Garnish

Flavour Profile

Health & Nutrition

Nutrition:

Alcohol content:

Allergens:

History

Review

Comments & Discussion

See more...

Celebration

How to make

Glass

Prepare

Method

Garnish

Flavour Profile

Health & Nutrition

Nutrition:

Alcohol content:

Allergens:

History

Review

Comments & Discussion

See more...

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