You're listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. Today in the room with me, virtually, Chris. Hey, I'm Chris, I do wine. And Pat's here. Yeah, it's Pat, I do spirits. And Roger. Roger, beer, spirits aficionado, cocktail enthusiast. So we're still sorta in quarantine here, so it's time for another quarantine-y episode. And Roger made everybody watch this stupid video in advance of this thing, but I didn't watch it, so I don't know. Pat, did you watch it? I watched it. A couple thoughts. F*** you, Roger, for making us watch that abomination of a mixology video. Also Stanley Tucci has no idea. He made what I'm sure is a tasty cocktail, but calling it a Negroni is not a Negroni. He's screwing up some very fundamental things, which yes, yes, I'm always gonna say, enjoy things how you want, but how dare you call it something that I hold dear to my heart. I love the argument of it. It's not exactly how it's always been, so that's what it should ever be. Yeah, but he's sexy as all get out, isn't he? Yeah, right. I mean, oh yeah, yeah. Love me some Tucci, wonderful actor, very sexy man. Terrible Negroni advice. Roger, what is Pat talking about? Can you introduce this to me and also the audience who hasn't watched this video? In the course of this quarantine madness, I've been getting a lot of questions from friends, customers about spirits recommendations. A lot of people aren't going to bars as much and they're trying to make cocktails at their house. So all of a sudden, I was getting all these questions about Negronis and about the ingredients that go into Negronis. What's a bitter? What does this mean? Is this like cocktail bitters? So I started to just seem bizarre that so many. I mean, I know Negronis has become a pretty popular cocktail, but I started Googling it and then I happened to see something on the news. Stanley Tucci decided, and to be fair, he was just making his wife a drink. He wasn't saying like some of these Hollywood stars lately like, hey, watch me cook or watch me do this. His wife likes Negronis. She filmed him making her one. The world lost their mind. Some of it is, as Pat said, Stanley Tucci is a little older, still looking pretty good. He's got some pretty tremendous biceps and people like that, and they like watching him make a cocktail. What am I missing out on? I watched this and it made me laugh. Then I started to realize it spurred this whole thing. People on the Internet are talking about this. They're writing articles about his two-minute video talking about, you know, then people in the cocktail community are losing their minds about the Tucci's technique and things he did wrong. So I found the whole thing pretty surreal and pretty funny. I like that it's getting people to think about Negronis. I also like the idea of talking about Negronis because I hated this drink for a long time. Because one of the iconic ingredients, I hate Campari. Roger, hey Roger, hey Roger, hey Roger. You're a jerk, Roger. Roger, f**k you. Yeah, fair enough. I think this is a perfect example of that. Cocktails are made to be experimented with and the Negroni is near and dear to a lot of people's heart, partially because it's such a simple cocktail. It's a three ingredient cocktail, equal parts. So easy. And Campari for many is kind of the- The first thing Tucci messed up. The non-interchangeable thing is just sort of, yeah, you always use Campari and Campari is a Italian bitter and I'm sure Pat will go into this more, that's it is really bitter. It's an Amaro. For this town that loves Malort. It's not that bitter. It's bitter. I mean, it's Malort-esque. It's not as bitter as Malort. Greg, you can't taste bitter, just face it. Bitter is not something that's on your spectrum. Not much is as bitter as Malort though. Chris, bitter is one of the things that makes me feel alive. I think we've established that I have the most sensitive and delicate palate. I use it daily and I'm proud of it. These Milan liqueur is much like Malort, which is great for heavy smokers. There's no balance. It's crazy, crazy bitter. When we talk about the cocktail, there's lots of things you can sub in. The Negroni is not the cocktail for Roger. I love this cocktail now because I started using things besides Campari. You started sweetening up your Negroni cocktail and you think that it's a better cocktail now. Yeah, pretty much. I think the bottom line is we're going to make fun of Stanley Tucci for messing with it and then we're going to totally destroy it on this podcast. So if Roger used the Red Bitter I recommended, he actually didn't sweeten it up, he dried it out and that's why it's a better cocktail. All right. So we're going to dive into the Negroni and then you guys can decide on your own who's right and who's Tucci. I'm going to go first, guys, because the Grigoni is about as classic as a Negroni gets. Okay? The Grigoni. Jim, just mute him, and I'll say something again when it's time to put the rest of us on, please. Mute Roger? Here's what a Negroni should be. Classically, it is gin, Campari, and sweet vermouth. They are equal parts, one ounce to one ounce to one ounce. You build it in a rocks glass over ice, and you stir it, and you're done. And you have this wonderful, herbaceous, bittersweet cocktail. greggroni is classic Negroni recipe, except I'm putting a little bit more gin. And I've been getting tired of gins that are like a little watery and weak. So my gin today is Plymouth Navy String. You just can't get enough alcohol, can you? So your cocktail is a booze bomb? Greg takes a 12% IPA of gins. This is as classic a Negroni as you're going to get on this episode. So chuckle it up, guys. So Navy strength, what is that one, 110? 57, so it's 114. 114, which is, so 114 proof alcohol by volume is equal to 100 proof alcohol by weight, which is the way they used to measure it. And that was what was considered Navy strength, was the 100 proof by weight. Cool. So most Navy strength gins should be 114 proof. That's what I'm doing. All right. So my vermouth is yet again, coquille vermouth to Torino, which is the best sweet vermouth after, objectively proven after our vermouth episode. And my Campari is **** Campari, because that's the bitter that goes into this cocktail. And if Roger thinks it's too bitter, maybe he doesn't like Negroni. It's hard to argue that Greg couldn't have picked better ingredients to make a Negroni. You've got arguably one of the best gins in the store, this Plymouth Navy Strength. Obviously one of the best sweet vermouths in the store, Koki Vermouth de Torino and the classic Campari. So as long as he doesn't screw up the proportions, which he already vowed to do, this should be about the perfect Negroni. Except it sounds like he's going to put too much gin in. I put in slightly too much gin and it's an overproofed gin. But honestly, the thing that I like about Campari, and I guess to me it is more sweet than bitter. There is a strong bitterness. It's a walnut shell kind of bitterness, which is more on the palate, more on the feel than in flavors. To me, the flavor is just an overwhelming red fruity sweetness, which this stuff is practically syrupy. Yeah, it's great. I would want to balance it out with a little bit extra gin to give it a little more cut. The sweet vermouth is also, it's a very full-bodied sweet vermouth, so that mixed up in the glass. What was your final gin measure? I'm using the Pat method of a stemless wine glass, which is, I don't use it for wine because it's such a fat lip, but it's great for cocktails like this. Especially focuses the spirit a little bit on the nose, but I don't know. I used about this much gin. Oh, come on. You didn't measure it. Please, Roger. Please. So Tucci one-upped Greg by actually measuring the ingredients. Hold on a second. Before you start bad mouthing, my Negroni, can I just tell you how good my Negroni is? I'd love to hear how good your Negroni is. It's fabulous. It's absolutely fabulous. It highlights the gin. The herbal complexity of a gin is what makes gin great. This is a great cocktail to work with gin because you're adding sweetness and also bitterness. So you're taking the complexity of gin, you're adding body, and honestly, it's a pretty strong drink, but it's very drinkable because there's two sweet liqueurs in it. Well, you've really blown it by making such a small drink, I would say. What are you talking about? This is 12 solid ounces. I know. Oh, he's being sarcastic. I am indeed. Yeah, he made a humongous Negroni. You also have no garnish. I knew he was going to say that. If I was going to have a garnish, it would be the orange slush. Yeah, you're supposed to have the orange sliced garnish, but honestly, it just gets in the way. For the listeners here, the thing that Greg's calling Camparia Sweet Liqueur is kind of perplexing. It's- You're a whip. It's bittersweet. It's bittersweet. It's bittersweet. It's the sweetest bittersweet. Then you got like Aperol, that's even more sweet than Camparia. Aperol is much more sweet. Yeah. That's a different variation. If you want a Negroni that's a little less intense, you use Aperol instead of Camparia. Aperol is a little more citrusy, less of that, like you said, walnut shell, woody bitterness to it. All right. Before the music break, guys, I made a fabulous Negroni. It's a little gin heavy, but that is really the spirit that should be showcased here. I didn't watch the Tucci video, so I hope I'm along on the same team as many of our listeners who don't know what you're talking about. I'm going to sip my humongous Negroni while you guys talk about all of your adulterations on this classic cocktail. Deligerent, Greg. Maybe we could move this to the lawn, so you can sit in a lawn chair and yell at us. And yell at the neighborhood kids. Wearing my socks up to my knees with my sandals on, holding a garden hose but not moving from the chair. So Stanley Tucci's first mistake was that he used not equal parts in the cocktail, which again... Okay, mistake number one. We'll get to mistake number two later. So yeah, mistake number one. So I made mistake number one. Make it an equal parts cocktail, because cocktail making is complicated enough. What did Tucci add an extra ingredient, or too much of? What did he not balance out? Gin. So too much gin. Too much gin, not enough Campari, and in the middle, vermouth. Yeah. No, he used two one one. So he used two ounces of gin, one ounce of Campari, one ounce of vermouth. All right. So far, I'm team Tucci. Chris, what do you got for us? You are on the Tucci team, because you messed up just as much as he did. I'm red in the Tucci train. So that being said, going off the rails on the Tucci train. Go Bears. I'm going to totally bastardize this cocktail by using a French Amaro and vermouth that you may or may not expect. So I saw what you used. You did. It's a vermouth Amaro. It is, yeah. So I'm using the old Point and a Half. A Punt-e-Mez. Yeah, Punt-e-Mez. So very bitter leaning vermouth based. The name refers to, I guess, one point vermouth, half a point Amaro. It's vermouth with added bitters. So it can be considered a vermouth Amaro. So are you using two parts of that instead of a vermouth and an Amaro? No. He's using that as his vermouth. Yeah. So more bitter vermouth. That's my vermouth. Which I'm intrigued by and Greg, you should be too. Yeah. You should be. Sounds good so far. So the reason I chose Punta Mez is because my Amaro, I think, is not quite as bitter as Campari. And it has some sweet oranges as well as bitter oranges in it. And it's really nice. It's called Bijole China China. And it's a French orange liqueur. Okay. So I've got this mixed up. What's your gin, Chris? Okay. So I've got just Tanqueray, Bijole China China, and Punta Mez. I didn't have a regular orange on hand, so I've got a Cara Cara orange here. Ooh, blood orange. Yeah. What the? Oh, that's, instead of saying blood orange, you're calling it a Cara Cara orange? To type in blood orange. Oh, did you? Yeah. Did you participate in the fruit episode or not? Roger here to offer the corrections on subdivisions of fruit. So anyway, one thing I think you'll notice is that Bijole is not that intense bright red that Campari is so famous for. It's a brown cocktail you got there. It's what? A brown cocktail. Yeah, it's indeed brown. On the Roger scale, he'd tell you, you drink with your eyes. Look at that beauty. Hey, what kind of gin did you use, Chris? Sorry, I missed that. Tanker Ray in this case. I think generally, I'm still working under quarantine. I like Beefeater in this drink. I like a real. Beefeater is a great Negroni gin. Yeah, I agree. Agreed. This is fantastic. It really brings a lot of sweet orange to the cocktail, more so than the Campari does, but it still has pronounced bitterness. I think that Puntemez is really doing its job. It's fantastic. I would highly recommend this Bizarro variation. I wanted to interject real quick with a note on Puntemez, how that is actually pretty apropos for this cocktail. If you look at the heritage of the Negroni, it starts with Gaspar Campari, who had a bar in the 1860s. He had a drink called the Milano Torino, and that combined equal parts Puntemez, which is from Torino, and Campari, which was the bitter liqueur he designed, and he was in Milan. That birthed a drink called an Americano, which was essentially that same mixture, but with soda water to lighten it up. The next riff which birthed the Negroni was when Count Camellio Negroni decided to sub in gin instead of the sparkling water to make an even stronger drink. So Puntemez is a nice shout out and good selection. Thank you. Good history lesson. And it works famously in this. I really think you should try this if you have any Bijoulet. It's just so citrusy compared to the Campari version. It's really good. It sounds awesome. I got to get a bottle of Puntemez. You do. It's an interesting product. My version is a true quarantini. Because before I went into quarantine, I had a friend over and he wanted this cocktail and I did not have Campari on hand. And that's how I stumbled upon this combination. I just kind of riffed on it with what I had. So what is Toochie's second mistake? Second mistake? He shakes it. He puts it in a cocktail shaker and shakes it. Wait, then does he strain it off the ice or does he throw the ice in there too? No, he strains it. Mistake number three, he strains it and serves it up. What is he doing? Yeah, Negronis should be on the rocks, I think. That's part of the chore. I don't care how cut his biceps are, I guarantee I can beat Stanley Tucci in an arm wrestle. Bring it, Tooch. I don't know why you got to bring physicality into this. So I don't know. It's 2020, I'm ready to fight. Let's see if he can shake it like he does though. All right. Yeah. I think maybe you just shook it so you could see that bicep work. All shaking aside, Pat, what is your next take on the Negroni? All right. I'm going to make my classic Negroni next, and I'm going to use my favorite Negroni ingredients. First up, most importantly is gin. Is that Leatherby? Yes. It is Leatherby gin. My gin I'm using is Leatherby. I think it is about the perfect Negroni gin because it's got the chutzpah to stand up to this cocktail. It's 48% alcohol, and it's intensely herbaceous. It's not just like a weak citrus floral gin. You are validating what I just did with the Navy Strength. Now, the next thing I'm using is actually the number one selling red bitter in Italy, which is Select Aperitivo. Select Aperitivo is made by the same people that make Montenegro Amaro. This was not available in the States forever, and it is now, so pretty cool. Yeah, Pat, let me try that. That stuff's pretty delicious. Pretty legit red bitter. How would you say the color compares to Campari? It looks a little darker from my perspective. A little darker in color. It's not like blood red, but it is like Crayola crayon red. And I'm using the King of Vermouth, the vermouth that finally pulled me away from Coquille Vermouth de Torino when we finally started getting it, which is Carpano Classico. So everybody knows Carpano Antica formula, which we sell a ton of in our stores. We have big one liter bottles. We have 375s. It's pretty expensive, right? Carpano Antica. It has vanilla in it, right? Correct. It's not just a sweet vermouth. It's a vermouth a la vanilla, and it's got, it's essentially vermouth de torino, sweet Turin style Italian vermouth, but with added vanilla. And I think the vanilla in it honestly kind of tastes kind of fake now. I don't know if it always tastes that way, but I don't really dig it. I think it sweetens it up and makes a little too flabby. But this Carpano Classico is the same thing, but without the vanilla. And it is just a star of a vermouth. Guys, we got to stop doing episodes about stuff that I like because this is another bottle I put on my shopping list. Now, you might want to call this a mistake. I'm going to use the gregg method and use a pencil to stir my podcast. I've never used a pencil. I used the bottom half of this wine key. No, you explicitly used a pencil. Eraser end first. That was a joke. It was a joke. It was a joke. I used my stinker. Here's my Negroni. Very nice color. A little darker red because I did use that beautiful dark vermouth, but I have this really awesome red bitter. This thing is awesome. Very pretty. It smells a little vermouth heavy because I'm using a big vermouth, but I'm willing to bet the gin really shines on the taste. Props to Pat for having a half acre rocks glass apparently. This is wonderfully balanced. If anything, it might be a little on the sweet side, and I think a Navy strength gin might have given this a little lift. Sounds like you need a little more gin. Hey, I got a 92 proof gin. I think that's usually plenty here. Oh no, excuse me, 96 proof gin. Once you've had a bunch of Negronis, you want a little bit more gin. You want a little bit more of the cut of the basic alcohol that's working as the base of the cocktail. This is a, yeah, I do have a half acre rocks glass. I have no idea where this came from or why they made a rocks glass. This is what I normally drink my, what's that cocktail I drink? Hams. A Gold Rush. This is what I normally drink my Gold Rush in. That's my classic Negroni. I use better ingredients. It sounds amazing and I want to try one myself, but thank you for the validation. You need more gin. Jim, roll the music again before anybody else can say anything. Hey, Roger's up next. Roger, you got to take on this for us? Yeah, so first and most importantly, Stanley Tucci mistake number three, or four, I think we're on. Yeah, straining. He suggested if you don't like gin, that you sub in vodka. Boo. Boo. If you don't like gin, you're not gonna like a Negroni. Just don't even try making one. And then it was like, and if you want a little more flavor, they'll put a splash of gin on top of the vodka. Boo. If you don't like how gin tastes, you're not gonna like how an Italian bitter taste. Campari and vermouth taste. Right. Right. Their gin times, they're squared. They're gonna just botanicals out the wazoo. So Roger, you're saying you also would like a Negroni with more gin. I accept your apology. Well, look, I'm gonna give you a concession here. I was originally gonna make one with Sipsmith, which is a phenomenal London gin. Really nice gin. Instead, because Brophy was so good as to hand deliver this to me, I am going to use a Navy Strength gin. I've been wanting to try this for ages. This is from Heyman's. I've had their old Tom gin. I would argue it's one of the best old Toms out there. There's not many. They are one of the few that started making one again. Old Tom gin famously has a little bit of sweetness to it. But this is the Heyman's Royal Dock Navy Strength gin. So 57% alcohol. Also from the same purveyors, Haas Alpen. I love to represent their products because their portfolio is incredible. Great portfolio of European bidders. At Brophy's Recommendation, this goofy bottle here. Another thing I had never tried before, but boy am I glad he introduced me to it. It's Aperitivo Capoletti. So this is always Capoletti Aperitivo. Whenever we do an Amaro class as a staff training, and we taste some Red Bitters blind, every single time, Capoletti Aperitivo has come out on top with Red Bitters. Every single time. Of note though, that is a Vino Aperitivo. So that is a wine base, not a spirit base. So when you buy this and you open it, you need to refrigerate it and you need to drink it. Okay. And what's the alcohol level on that? Is it fortified wine? Yeah, it's fortified and aromatized. Roger, what is the alcohol level on that thing? 17. So it's up there. It's not quite comparable to Vermouth. Yeah. It's in the same level as like Aperol's a little less actually, but Aperol's only 11% alcohol. Yeah. It's kind of like in the middle. Maybe it's 12. Campari is 24, Aperol's 11, and Capoletti is 17. So it kind of sets the difference. Capoletti also, on their other spectrum of fortified and aromatized and bittered wines, makes the Barrel to Bottle crew's favorite ever, Vino Amaro, Elixir Nova Salus. I still have most of the bottle in my basement because it's real, sometimes it's real tough. It's real tough. I'm sure it's getting better. It's real tough or you're real wimpy, which is the truth? I mean, I bought it, so eager to take on a challenge, I guess. Do we want to address- When you want to drink and have no one to fight. Honestly, when you want to drink and then you want to stop drinking immediately. Do we want to address the bright red color of these bitters at all? Oh, yes, we do, and that's a good point with the Capoletti. Also of note with the Capoletti, it is one of the few that is still colored with carmine. Carmine is a pleasant word for coquineo. Crushed up bugs. Which is crushed up coquineo beetles, which give a natural red coloring. Is it like the whole beetle, or does somebody have to take a tweezers and get their little wings off? Never seen the whole thing. I'm under the impression it's like they're dead and dried up and you crush them up. Yeah, it's the whole bug. And crushed female beetles. Female, that's odd specificity. Another quick note on one of Roger's ingredients, Heyman's Royal Dock, which is the Navy Strength Gin, has an emphasis on angelica and coriander in the botanicals, and it's intended to give it a little more peppery spiciness. The coquette in here is really shining. I almost think maybe that is a bit too robust of a vermouth here. Maybe it's delicious, but that's very pronounced. It's it's really a great cocktail. But of note, that coquette really is kind of the sweet kind of caramely notes are really shining through. But it's quite nice. The bitterness is definitely much more subdued. And there's definitely that wine like fruitiness that rounds things off. Rounded, soft or Negroni. And Stanley Tucci's last mistake, he strained it and served it up. Dumb, serve it on the rocks. It's in fairness, he acknowledged that usually a Negroni is served on the rocks, but he thinks it's really nice when it's served up. So he provided no scientific evidence, therefore he's a jerk. I'm a guy who would opt to have like a traditionally served up cocktail on the rocks. So I wholly disagree. I'd rather let it evolve and soften over time as I evolve and soften. I lean toward up in most cocktails where there's a choice. You lean toward up? Yeah. Here I think- I do as well. It's the way to go. Honestly, it's like 65 percent not wanting to have to wash a glass with a stem. That's fair. You are the laziest drunk I've ever known. Oh, truly, truly. Some of what should be noted is ice, right? So, you know, if you can- we actually did do a Barrel of the Bottle on ice. And if you're going to make a Negroni and serve it on the racks, you should use good ice that's not going to instantly melt. So if you're using your refrigerator banana ice, as they like to call it, that's white, that's full of air, it's good because it gets made quickly by your refrigerator, but it's bad because since it's full of air and it's small, it melts real quick. So it's going to dilute your drink. So if you use a bunch of it, so it dilutes, but it also stays cold longer. Now, on the other side of that coin, I would argue that a Negroni is best over ice because it can have such an intense sweetness from the bittersweet red liqueur and the sweet vermouth. I think it needs a little bit of water to cut through that syrupy texture. I like the fact that as I'm sipping on a Negroni over ice, it is slowly getting slightly watered down. I think it's one of those cocktails that can change dramatically over the course of whatever, the 20 minutes. If you're a normal person, 20 minutes you're going to drink it, if you're me, like seven minutes. Or if you have some podcasts, co-hosts who take forever to get to the point. I'm going to say I struck a middle ground with that. I stirred mine with my refrigerator ice, which definitely melted a little quickly. Quarantine it. What are you going to do? Then I put it over a nice big clear cube. Yeah, that's what I did too. Oh, so you watered it down and then put it over your big fancy ice. Yes. My refrigerator makes small cubes, but they are shockingly clear. No, wow. That's intense. I've never seen such a clear fridge. They're very small, but they're very clear. Very small, very clear. I have literally everybody's definition, like refrigerator ice. It's like opaque white banana. I got that too. It looks like a piece, like the inside of a mango steam. Hey, you guys like that fruit, boys? Hi-yo. You like that fruit game? I did. Your fruit game is growing. Just got to add the Cara Cara orange to your repertoire. The Cara Cara blood orange. Yeah. So Brophy, lots of kids are talking about white Negronis these days. What's that all about? Let me finish this one first and then I'll tell you. Whoa. Why don't you act like a professional and take care of that? Yeah. Damn. I finished my first drink long ago. That is, I would say, one of the nice things about a Negroni too. Besides being equal parts, it's one ounce, so it's a smaller cocktail. You can enjoy a couple of them and you won't end up on the floor. Or like Greg, you can use any amount you want just in equal proportions. It's fine. Half a cup of each. It's completely fine. See, eight ounces of gin, eight ounces of Campari. Served in a 7-Eleven big gulp container. With residual diet Dr. Pepper on the bottom. You know, your Yeti keeps it cold for a real long time. Would you like a Fun Straw with that, sir? Yeah. Okay, so we're ready for some riffs on Negronis. One of the more common ones you see out at actual bar, you know, kind of drinks list is a white Negroni. And a white Negroni is generally going to be gin and dry vermouth and suze. And suze is a gentian heavy French kind of alpine liqueur. But suze has a very... Is that a brand? Yeah, S-U-Z-E, suze, we saw it. S-U-Z-E is a really like neon bile yellow color. And I like the flavor it gives, that kind of gentian character. But it definitely, like the drink isn't white. I mean, it makes it yellow. So instead, I have two different options today. One is Luxardo Bitter Bianco. So Luxardo Bitter normally is the classic Italian red bitter. And this is the same character, the same kind of flavor, but it is practically clear in color. I'm going to try one with that. Is it just lacking the Beatles or what? Yeah, they just didn't color it the same. So the idea... Now, I don't have the red one here side by side to try it, but they're pretty similar in profile. Okay. The other thing I'm going to try is a... I'm going to use a Kina Kina, but I'm going to use a Blanc Kina Kina from Cap Course, which is a Corsican fortified and aromatized Kien Kiena. They make a red and a white and it's kind of interesting. So a Kina Kina, as we talked about earlier, I don't know if we really got into the botanicals, those are Amari that highlight the quinine character. And so heavy on the cinchona bark, which produces a lot of kind of baking spice, but more on the back of the palate, not so much on the front. So it should provide an interesting front to back experience in a Negroni. I'm going to try to look Zardo first. That sounds amazing. Yeah, that's pretty cool combination of things. I have mixed up a white Negroni here. I actually haven't had one of these in quite some time. I don't quite care for Suze, if I remember correctly, it's been quite some time. So it would get an outrageous Roger Amaro descriptor attached to it, if we bring it into an Amaro episode at some point. It would be somewhere between drinking grandpa's perfume and forest service bathroom and urinal cleaning solution or something. All right. That sounds about right. So I made some again, thanks to Brophy coming over. We enjoyed some nice porch social distancing cocktails together. I got some of the Luxardo White Bitter from him. This time I went with the Sipsmith Gin, and then I went with the Camo, the Blanc Vermouth. So this is going to be in the chambery style like Pat was just talking about. So oxidative and a nice kind of alpine herb component. You'll recognize the label from its sad clown slash minstrel. Yeah. It's got the Pagliacci. The Pagliacci Clown. Of note with this, Roger, like I used a dry vermouth. Roger is actually a Blanc Vermouth is a sweet vermouth. It's a sweet vermouth that has had its color filtered. So this Camot is now made at Dolan, but it's not the same as the Dolan Blanc. It's slightly different. So I want to hear how you feel about this, Roger. Yeah. So for one, it has kind of this funky, like very fluorescent emerald kind of color to it. So it's not clear, clear like the Dolan Blanc, but the Finnish Cocktail is beautiful. It's very light and clear. That is clear. This is quite good. This is very, very nice. The Juniper from the Gin is there in the background. There's kind of some almondy notes presenting from the Luxardo. And then just the bitterness is very subtle and very rounded, not very austere by any means. There's a greenness, like it definitely has that alpine herb. So think like... Oh yeah, I was going to bring that up, Roger. Like, Ricola. This is the Ricola herb. This is another vermouth because it's the same family's Dolan that's imported by our friends at Howes Alpens. They note that unlike Dolan Blanc, Camot Blanc is slightly less sweet than other vermouth blanc with notes of stone fruits, alpine flowers, and a deep resonant undercurrent of wormwood. So I would argue this is the dry vermouth lovers Blanc vermouth. Oh, that sounds really good. It's really good. This is awesome. This is a really neat cocktail. Nice job, Roger. Of note, this particular vermouth really rose to prominence as an essential part of the El Presidente cocktail in Cuba way back when. That's interesting. I forgot about that drink. Telling you, their website is a font of knowledge. If you just look at their drink recipes for every single product, so many cool ideas. I basically made their version of a Negroni today, I think, with the Heymans, the Royal Dock Gin and the Capoletti and the Coke. Tucci's fifth mistake, fast-talking high pants. He even- I agree. I like that. I was going to say, he pokes fun at this too, and I think he does it to laugh about the word home and it doesn't matter. He uses his hands to pick out the ice, which is gross. I've been doing that the whole time, but what am I going to have? Like a little pair of pliers here? You're not making cocktails for anybody else, but you don't need to use your hands. He just pour it from one container to the next. Or scoop. I thought Tucci mistake number five was being in the third Transformers movie. Wasn't he in that? You guys watched the third Transformers movie? I watched it once and I've regretted it ever since. Look, Transformers without Shia LaBeouf, I don't even want to take part in. I mean, the unfortunate thing is that most young people only know Stanley Tucci as that guy from The Hunger Games with the goofy hair. I have a riff on a white Negroni too that may or may not surprise you. I'm gonna break some of the rules, of course. So anyway, this might strike a note with people who like martinis, as you mentioned, Pat, yours was a little martini-esque, or the Vesper cocktail. But I'm sticking with some classic Negroni proportions here. So what I'm gonna do, my base gin is the Plymouth regular strength, not the Navy. And then, like y'all, Dolan Dry. Hey, Dolan Dry. All right. And then in place of a bitter, something that is quite bitter. Just knocked a bottle over. Oh, good. I was gonna do this. Chris, I was gonna do this, but I was out of this bottle at my house for the first time ever. So, this is also based on Genshin, so, Coquilla Americano. So, all of those in equal proportion. And then, I added just a couple dashes in honor of Greg of Regan's Orange Bitters. Nice. And I'm gonna mix this up. Where's your shaker, Tucci? And, just to complicate matters, after complaining about Tucci serving his stuff up, I'm gonna serve this one up, because it's so martini-esque and pretty. So, I just stirred it. Did not shake it, just in case you're afraid I did. So, there it is in an antique cocktail coupe. Little, instead of an orange slice, a little zest of orange. What do you think? It's pretty good, huh? So, this is fantastically refreshing. It's super light, citrusy. It does everything you want a cocktail like this to do. Definitely toned down bitterness, but you get that gentian from the Americano. It's like a symphony of botanicals. You know, it's coming from all directions. Really good. Presentation gets a plus. I want to make fun of the tiny little coupe that you have and the fact that you served it up, but it sounds so good that I just can't make fun of this. This is a beautiful antique coupe that belonged to my grandparents. Oh, now we definitely can't make fun of it, now that your grandparents are dead. All right. Let's talk about things that Stanley Tucci did right. Stanley Tucci used quality ingredients. Cool. He, in fact, used the exact same gin as what Chris just used, and the non-Navy strength of what Greg used. So Plymouth gin, very good. He also made fun of martini vermouth, which was hilarious and- Which is dog vermouth. So whenever I teach a vermouth training to the staff, the first thing we do is blind taste three of the cheapest vermouths in the store, and every single time, there's one that's like, oh, this is pretty good, and one's like, holy cow, this is horrible. Shockingly, the pretty good one is Gallo, which is like three bucks a bottle, and the really horrible one is Martini and Rossi, which is like six bucks a bottle. Terrible, terrible vermouth. As Pat has showed us time and time again, the reason that Pat is so passionate about this is that he loves vermouth, and so few people give it the time of day because they have an experience with subpar vermouth. So as these multiple episodes now where we've talked about cocktails that involve vermouth show, your cocktail is only as good as your ingredients, and with a drink like this where it's only three things. Where a third of it is vermouth, you need a good vermouth. Hey, as an aside, Roger, my wife made a really great margarita the other day. I was like, this is awesome. What is it? She goes, I use the limes, not the lime juice. So I totally agree with Roger. Eat your lime juice, like the lime juice that you have, the real lime or whatever, drink the limes. Finally converted. Yes, I agree. I 100 percent agree. That speaks to another thing Stanley Tucci did right, which was he made his wife a drink. Just like Greg's wife made him a drink, make the one you love a drink because that makes it all much better. Oh, **** you, Roger. I'm not making you a drink. You know as hard as mine, Pat, as well as I do. Roger, you know what else Tucci did right? He busted out a form to make something that he liked. So that's fine. It's totally fine to break out of the norm and break out of the expectation, the recipe. What, are we not picking a fight with a famous actor anymore? Come on, screw you Tucci, you messed up, buddy. I would give him a hug if his glorious pecs could support the weight of my weary head. I'm willing to bet you're roughly a foot and a half taller than him. Oh, for sure. Yeah, no, he would find me a soft plush pillow of a man. Yeah, it's like, oh, in that oversized pan, a spare tire feels great. Pat, do you have one more? I have one more. All right, you gotta take us home with this one more. So we've covered a couple different Negroni variations. We skipped over some Negroni variations. They're everywhere now because hipsters have infiltrated our society and are slowly taking over our government, right? I'm going back to the Blanc Vermouth though, and I kept going with my Leatherby Gin, one ounce Leatherby Gin, one ounce Dolan Dry Vermouth, and this time, instead of the Aperitivo, I used a Quinkina, a Cap Corse Mate Blanc, which is a Corsican fortified and aromatized wine. It's actually made from a Mistel base. Savvy quarantine-y listeners will recognize the now **** upon word Mistel. It ruined many of Pat's cocktails. Ruined many cocktails early on. But this is a true Quinkina Blanc, and it is pretty awesome. And it's made with local Corsican ingredients, notably the citrone, which is a fruit that I'm sure the bottom two people on my video conference screen right now will give a **** about. And apparently, it's some citrus hybrid that's mostly rind or something, and terrible to eat. But it is a Blanc Quinkina, which is totally unique in the world of Quinkinas. It's very slightly hazy kind of white in color. It kind of looked like the same color as this Luxardo Bitter Bianco, where it had like this faint, very faint yellowish tint to it. And honestly, this is interesting. It's got it's got a grapeier character than the Luxardo did. So this is really good. You can tell it's made from a mistel because it's got this unfermented grape juice sweetness and a bit of a grape juice flavor to it. But it's immediately backed up by that, again, back of the palate, dry, cinnamony, woody spice note that you would get from a Quina Quina. And it's just it's just a balanced, awesome Negroni. And I think the first one I made with the Luxardo, the Dry Vermouth showed a little more. In this one, the Dry Vermouth takes a backseat to the Quina Quina. So, interesting. Cap course, Quina Quina, Blanc. We don't have a lot of Binny's because it's a really weird, fortified and aromatized wine. Those aren't exactly a huge thing, but you should seek it out. You can order it at any Binny's. It's a really cool thing that adds some herbaceous, but light character to any cocktail you're going to use it. So, Pat, I'm sure you've gone over this before, but just to clarify, Mistel is defined by the fact that it's unfermented grape must that's fortified with alcohol. That's fortified with grape distillate. So they take essentially grape juice and they spike it with alcohol that was distilled wine, essentially, that was brandy. Where is this made? This is made on the island of Corsica. So, hey, that was a lot of Negronis. And mine was still the best, but I'm glad that you guys played along. And to Tucci, you got some stuff going for you. You got some stuff going against you. You don't take it personally. Thanks for listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. We will be back in your feed next week with something that makes sense. I'm Greg. I'm Chris. I'm Pat. And I'm Roger. Keep tasting. Tucci, hey, Tucci, do you want to arm wrestle?