Cardinale

Taste

An ounce and a half of gin, three-quarters of Campari, three-quarters of dry vermouth. More gin than either modifier, and dry vermouth in the sweet slot, so the juniper stays in front and the Campari reads as bitter orange peel over a lean drink. Stirred, coupe, lemon twist.

History

Giovanni Raimondo made the Cardinale at the Excelsior Hotel in Rome in 1950, for a cardinal in the city at the summons of Pope Pius XII for the Jubilee. That build was roughly an ounce of gin, half an ounce of dry Moselle, and a third of an ounce of Campari, with a clove-studded orange peel; dry vermouth replaced the wine later, likely for availability and for keeping. David Wondrich points out that the name is older: Piero Grandi's 1926 Campari book Cocktails lists a Campari Cardinal made with sweet vermouth, and Paolo Ponzo found a dry-vermouth Cardinale in Amedeo Gandiglio's 1947 Cocktails Portfolio, the same book that first prints the equal-parts Negroni. This menu pours an ounce and a half of gin, three-quarters of Campari, and three-quarters of dry vermouth, stirred, coupe, lemon twist.

• Punch, What Is the Cardinale Cocktail?

Same shape, other bottles

The Negroni family, with the bottle that changed.

• Negronisweet vermouth for dry vermouth
• Brazilian Negronicachaça and sweet vermouth for gin and dry vermouth
• Boulevardierbourbon and sweet vermouth for gin and dry vermouth
• Little Italyrye and sweet vermouth for gin and dry vermouth
• Cin-Cynsweet vermouth and Cynar for dry vermouth and Campari
• Kingston Negroniaged rum and sweet vermouth for gin and dry vermouth