Yesterday a friend sent me an article from The New York Times celebrating the centenary of the Negroni cocktail, invented by Count Camillo Negroni at his local caffè in Florence in 1919.
I often prep the menu and wine list before I go to a restaurant, so I was aware of the Negroni birthday. A goddaughter was celebrating a significant birthday and her mother asked her godparents to lunch at the Ivy Chelsea Garden yesterday. They have a special birthday Negroni on the cocktail list:
Negroni A La Peche rocks; created at The Ivy Victoria Quarter in Leeds to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Negroni; this is a light and summery version with Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz gin, RinQuinQuin A La Peche peach liqueur, Campari, peach bitters and finished with grapefruit zest.
I’d never heard of RinQuinQuin; it’s a peach liqueur made in Provence. Nor had I encountered Four Pillars Bloody Shiraz gin.
This intriguing treat is the delicious result of mixing Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin with Yarra Valley Shiraz grapes. What the Australian distillers did was steep the grapes in the gin for eight weeks, then pressed the grapes and blended it with yet more of their gin.
It costs about £40 a bottle and is only 37.8% so best avoided I reckon. Anyway, as it was a birthday lunch we eschewed cocktails and had two bottles of champagne. Today Bertie has an appointment with the vet and I’m going to MP Evans’ AGM.