Four Seasons Book of Cocktails

A light and airy pre-dinner pleaser

2 ounces Dubonnet Rouge

1 ounce cranberry juice

4 ounces Champagne

Orange twist for garnish

Pour Dubonnet and juice into tulip glass. Top with Champagne, stir, and garnish.

An appetite-enhancing variation on the Cosmopolitan

1 ounce Dubonnet Rouge

1 ounce orange liqueur

1 ounce vodka

1 ounce cranberry juice

1 splash lime juice

Orange twist for garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice and shake. Strain into glass and garnish.

One of these liqueurs originated in France, the other in New Orleans.

Crushed ice

3 ounces Lillet Blanc

1 ounce Southern Comfort

Orange twist for garnish

Fill a white wine glass with crushed ice and pour in liqueurs. Stir and garnish.

Grappa is an Italian eau-de-vie distilled from pomace—the grape skins and seeds left over from winemaking.

2 ounces grappa

½ ounce gin

2 ounces lime juice

Lime slice for garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice and shake. Pour with ice into glass and garnish.

At a Paris bistro with an Italian clientele?

2 ounces Punt è Mes

½ ounce Cointreau

½ teaspoon Pernod

½ ounce Cognac

Orange twist for garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice and stir to chill. Strain into glass and garnish.

A blend of sherry, Campari, and two fruits

2 ounces amontillado sherry

2 ounces Campari

Juice of half a lime

1 teaspoon raspberry syrup

Combine ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice, shake, and pour with ice into glass.

An after-dinner drink for country gentlemen of means

1½ ounces Hennessy X.O. Cognac

1 ounce Wild Turkey bourbon

Pour Cognac and bourbon into ice-filled rocks glass and stir.

Named for the film classic starring Alec Guinness as an Anglo-Italian. Pimm’s No. 1 is an herby gin-based liqueur created by London restaurateur James Pimm in the 1880s.

2 ounces Pimm’s No. 1

2 ounces Campari

4 ounces club soda

Orange twist for garnish

Pour Campari and Pimm’s into ice-filled highball glass. Top with club soda and stir.

Bittersweet, like the Fellini film

3 ounces Campari

1 ounce sambuca

Pour Campari and liqueur into ice-filled rocks glass and stir.

As minty as it gets. Branca Menta is mint-flavored Fernet-Branca, one of Italy’s most widely exported amari.

2 sprigs mint

2 ounces Branca Menta

1 ounce fresh lemon juice

Club soda

Mint leaf for garnish

Muddle mint in bottom of mixing glass. Pour in amaro and juice. Add ice, shake, and strain into glass. Top with club soda to taste and garnish.

The French aperitif Lillet, gin, and a touch of almond. Lillet—distilled from wine, brandy, and herbs—comes in blanc (white) and rouge (red).

1½ ounces Lillet Blanc

½ ounce gin

1 teaspoon amaretto

Combine ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice, shake, and strain into glass.

With the artichoke-based bitters Cynar (pronounced CHEE-nahr)

2 ounces Cynar

1 ounce peach schnapps

3 ounces club soda

Orange twist for garnish

Pour Cynar and schnapps into ice-filled highball glass. Top with club soda and garnish.

Especially nice after a heavy meal. Zwack Unicum, a bitters formulated in Hungary in the eighteenth century, is packed with forty-plus botanicals.

2 ounces light rum

½ ounce Unicum

Club soda

Lemon twist for garnish

Pour rum and bitters into ice-filled rocks glass. Top with club soda to taste and garnish.

Inky and intriguing

3 ounces Campari

1 ounce blue curaçao

Pour Campari and liqueur into ice-filled rocks glass and stir.

With that elusive je ne sais quoi . . .

2 ounces dry vermouth

1 ounce Cointreau

1 ounce apricot brandy

½ teaspoon Pernod

Pour ingredients into ice-filled rocks glass and stir.

Starring a very pleasant white peach aperitif from Provence

2 ounces Henri Bardouin RinQuinQuin

Club soda

Pour aperitif into ice-filled rocks glass, top with club soda to taste, and stir.

Named for Wordsworth’s “lovely apparition”

2 ounces Jägermeister

1 ounce Chambord

Orange twist for garnish

Combine liqueurs in mixing glass. Add ice, stir to chill, strain into glass, and garnish.

Campari provides the color.

3 ounces Campari

1 ounce white crème de cacao

4 ounces club soda

Orange twist for garnish

Pour Campari and liqueur into ice-filled highball glass. Top with club soda and garnish.

The bitters turns the drink a light pink.

1 teaspoon Angostura bitters

2½ ounces gin, chilled

Ice water chaser (optional)

Chill glass. Pour bitters into liqueur glass, then swirl glass to coat the interior. Discard bitters and pour in gin. Serve with glass of ice water, if desired.

Strega is a bright yellow liqueur made from more than seventy botanicals.

1 ounce grappa

1 ounce Strega

1 ounce orange juice

Combine ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice, shake, and strain into glass.

Sip after a big meal.

2 ounces Fernet-Branca

2 ounces dark rum

Lemon twist for garnish

Pour amaro and rum into ice-filled rocks glass. Stir and garnish.

A taste of the French Riviera

4 ounces Dubonnet Rouge

4 ounces orange juice

Orange slice for garnish

Combine Dubonnet and juice in mixing glass. Add ice and shake. Pour with ice into glass and garnish.

Inspired by a line from the poet Shelley

2 ounces sweet vermouth

1 ounce apricot brandy

1 ounce Chambord

Rose petal for garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice and stir to chill. Strain into glass and garnish.

A rosy prelude to dinner

2 ounces Dubonnet Blanc

1 ounce Cherry Heering

2 ounces orange juice

3 ounces club soda

Orange slice for garnish

Maraschino cherry for garnish

Pour Dubonnet, brandy, and juice into ice-filled highball glass. Top with club soda and garnish.

“I love you” in Italy

1 ounce Punt è Mes

1 ounce peach schnapps

1 ounce dry vermouth

Orange peel spiral for garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice and stir to chill. Strain into glass and garnish.

Named after the Ferrari “redhead” auto

1 ounce dry vermouth

1 ounce Dubonnet Rouge

1 ounce amaretto

Lemon twist for garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice and stir to chill. Strain into glass and garnish.

A classic digestive

2 ounces vodka

1 ounce white crème de cacao

1 ounce light cream

Combine ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice, shake, and strain into glass.

A traditional pre-dinner pairing

Crushed ice

2 ounces dry vermouth

2 ounces crème de cassis

Lemon twist for garnish

Fill a white wine glass with crushed ice and add vermouth and liqueur. Stir and garnish.

Two vermouths plus fizz

2 ounces sweet vermouth

2 ounces dry vermouth

2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters

4 ounces club soda

Orange twist for garnish

Pour vermouths and bitters into ice-filled white wine glass. Top with club soda, stir, and garnish.

Sincerely good

1 ounce apricot brandy

1 ounce Punt è Mes

½ ounce Cointreau

1 ounce dry vermouth

Orange twist for garnish

Combine liquid ingredients in mixing glass. Add ice and stir to chill. Strain into glass and garnish.