Vermouth, built
Sherry & Tonic
Barline 2,t,Hl
The code is the shorthand off my printed menu; the Key tab decodes every letter.
- 2 oz Sherry
- top with Tonic water
Build in the glass over ice, then lift once with a barspoon.
Highball, iced, lemon twist.
Taste
Two ounces of amontillado, then tonic to the top of an iced highball. The sherry is nutty and bone dry, the tonic is bitter and a little sweet, and together they make a long drink with almost no sugar in it. The lemon twist brightens the nut. It drinks like a cold aperitif from Jerez.
History
In Andalusia sherry has always been a long drink as well as a wine: fino goes into lemon soda for the Rebujito at the ferias, and fino or amontillado goes into tonic at the bar. Punch groups it with vermouth and white port as the fortified wines Spain and Portugal take with tonic. Amontillado, a fino aged on past its flor, is the bottle this shelf carries, and its nuttiness stands up to the quinine better than a fino would. Two ounces of it go over ice and are topped with tonic, with a lemon twist.
Same shape, other bottles
The Highball family, with the bottle that changed.
- Vermouth & Tonicsweet vermouth for sherry
- Campari & Tonicwith Campari
- Gin & Tonicwith gin
- Vodka & Tonicwith vodka
- Americanosweet vermouth and soda water for sherry and tonic water
- Fernet and Gingerginger beer for tonic water
This is one drink on my home bar's menu. Tick the bottles you own and the menu lists which of all 185 drinks they pour.