A drier, sharper cousin of the Negroni, the Cardinale puts dry vermouth where the sweet would go, trading plush bitterness for something lean, aromatic and incisive. Gin leads, Campari lends a cardinal-red glow and a clean bitter spine, and a lemon peel brightens the nose of a cold, bracing aperitivo served up.
Garnish: Lemon Peel
Stirred · Coupe · Up
add
Add gin, dry vermouth, and Campari to a mixing glass.
stir
Fill with ice and stir until well chilled and properly diluted.
strain
Strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass.
express
Express a lemon twist over the surface and drop it in or perch it on the rim.
The most repeated story sets its birth in Rome, at the bar of the Hotel Excelsior, where bartender Giovanni Raimondo is said to have mixed it in 1950 for a visiting cardinal. That tale is far from settled — rival versions date the drink to 1926 or 1947, and no inventor has ever been documented. What is certain is its place in the Negroni family as the dry-vermouth branch of that bitter template, and its standing today as an IBA Contemporary Classic.