Adonis recipe
• 45ml Palo Cortado sherry
• 45ml Swillhouse sweet vermouth blend
• 2 dashes of Angostura orange bitters
Adapted from specs by James Irvine, Restaurant Hubert
Sherry is having a bit of a moment right now. (Well, among bartenders and somms at least.) And vermouth, too, has awoken, with new bottlings coming into the market from both abroad and from here in Australia.
That, combined with a desire for lower-alcohol cocktails doing the rounds, means this Adonis recipe is one you’ll want to have in your repertoire.
What’s the banter with this drink? Well, the Adonis recipe dates to the 1880’s, and was a tribute to the Broadway musical of the same name and either created by the bar at the Waldorf-Astoria, or, as David Wondrich has written (and we’d put our money on him), at Hoffman House.
James Irvine from Restaurant Hubert in Sydney mixed this version up for us, switching out the fino sherry in the Adonis recipe for a little palo cortado sherry — it’s a sherry that starts off life as a fino or amontillado, but then loses the flor (the layer of yeast that caps the wine in the barrel and prevents oxidation); palo cortado has the delicate and fine aroma of a fino combined with the richness and power of an oloroso on the palate. But those two ingredients themselves do not an Adonis make; crucial to this drink is the Angostura orange bitters, bringing it all together.
Take a look at Irvine whipping up the classic Pegu Club cocktail with Angostura orange bitters here.