The cocktail may be an American invention, but that doesn’t mean we have it all figured out when it comes to the culture of drinking. For instance, our “cocktail hour” tends to include drinks like a dry Martini or two, or a Manhattan. On their own merit, these drinks are great. But, unless your approach to dinner is characterized by a stagger, not to mention a dulled appetite, they are not generally the best choices.
A saner preprandial strategy comes from France and Italy in the form of a drink designed to stimulate the appetite, hence the term aperitif or aperitivo. In contrast to the strong American cocktail, the aperitif is low in alcohol and somewhat sharp in flavor, a pithy combination of sweet and bitter—usually in the form of an aromatized wine such as vermouth or a bitter low-alcohol spirit like Campari or Aperol. And there are signs that a true aperitif culture may be dawning in the United States.
One indication is the arrival this spring of not one, but two books on aperitifs: Aperitivo, by Marisa Huff, which includes recipes for snacks to go along with the drinks, and Spritz, by Talia Baiocchi and Leslie Pariseau, the duo who run the drinks website Punch.
Baiocchi told me that she doesn’t see herself ushering in a trend so much as responding to a very nascent one. While aperitif culture has been growing in London for years, there aren’t many such bars in the US, but the few that have embraced the aperitif and the spritz—places like NYC’s Dante, where owner Naren Young is highlighting vermouth service and aperitif cocktails, and Nitecap, which devotes a section of the drinks menu to the spritz—have garnered a lot of attention. On the West Coast, Barnacle in Seattle opened in 2014 as an aperitif bar, and in Los Angeles, David Rosoff and Chris Feldmeier are putting the finishing touches on Bar Vermut, a watering hole above Moruno, their new Spanish-inspired restaurant.
“The role that bitter plays in a cocktail is similar to the role that acidity plays in a wine. It gives it form, balance and a way to connect to other flavors in a compelling way.”
—David Rosoff
At the root of the aperitif embrace is a more expansive understanding of the dinner hour. As Rosoff relates, “We loved the whole ritual of dinnertime we found in Spain, people out on the street laughing, snacking and drinking. So what’s in this picture? Well, there’s anchovies and olives in it, and there’s vermouth, Sherry and aperitifs.”
There are advantages for restaurateurs, too. As Eric Seed, whose company Haus Alpenz was one of the first to focus on importing aperitifs, points out, “If they’re four ounces of vodka in, they’re not going to be as hungry or want a bottle of wine.”
Bitterness is essential to the aperitif. In the last decade, as bartenders have embraced everything from the bitters dashed into cocktails to amari and herbal liqueurs like Campari and Aperol, drinkers in the US have become more friendly to bitter flavors; hence the Fernet and Negroni crazes. The walk from Negroni to Americano is not long: just exchange the gin for soda water.
“For me, the role that bitter plays in a cocktail is similar to the role that acidity plays in a wine,” says Rosoff. “It gives it form, balance and a way to connect to other flavors in a compelling way.”
While Aperol and Campari have long defined the category of aperitif bitters, they are gradually being joined by newer alternatives. On the lighter side, Luxardo Aperitivo is a similar shade of orange and the same alcohol content (11 percent) as Aperol, but pointedly more bitter, with hints of Valencia orange and rhubarb instead of Aperol’s grapefruit notes. The Meletti 1870 is more intense and bitter than Aperol, yet less bracing than Campari. Contratto Aperitif offers a particularly herbal profile, with wormwood and juniper mingling with the orange notes. According to Baiocchi, in the coming year we can hope to see Nardini’s gentian-forward bitter (and its rhubarb-flavored Mezzoemezzo, I hope) as well as Select, which comes from Venice and is considered to be the first bitter to find its way into a spritz.
Some American producers are also getting in on the game. Eden Ice Cider of Vermont recently debuted the cider-based Orleans Herbal, a gently off-dry herb-infused cider, and Orleans Bitter, wonderfully tart and drier than Campari. In Washington, DC, Don Ciccio & Figli just released Cinque, a deep-red aperitif emphasizing orange flavor with a distinctively long, earthy finish.
Any of these bitters work in a classic spritz—just add sparkling water. And mixing and matching mostly yields success—a favorite spritz of mine is an ounce each of Cocchi Americano and Aperol mixed with two ounces of sparkling water over ice with a twist of lime. But the combinations are endless, all variations on the theme of sweet, bitter and effervescent.
Jordan Mackay’s writing on wine, spirits and food has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Decanter, the Art of Eating and many other publications. While Secrets of the Sommeliers, the book he wrote with Rajat Parr, won a James Beard Award in 2011, it’s certain winemakers that he credits with some of his most important tasting lessons.
This story appears in the print issue of April 2016.
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