This is the second entry in the series where my wife Sabrina and I take a journey through the wide wonderful world of classic cocktails by crafting and drinking simple versions of the recipes together at our home bar. Today, let’s dive into the Boulevardier!
Recipe:
- 1 oz Buffalo Trace Bourbon
- 1 oz Campari
- 1 oz Dolins Sweet Vermouth
- 1 lemon peel twist
Stir all the liquids in a mixing glass over ice until cold, 20 seconds or so. Strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with the lemon twist.
Intro:
This felt like the right choice to follow the Negroni, the inaugural cocktail in our little drink building exercise. Why? Well, the Boulevardier is just a variation of the Negroni recipe, substituting bourbon (or less commonly, rye) for the gin.
Also, I already had all the ingredients on hand, saving me from a trip to the liquor store and from getting stuck in analysis paralysis, trying to determine what would be a proper bourbon not only for this drink, but for the other bourbon-based cocktails that I plan to make going forward. Rather, I just stuck with the trusty old workhorse in my liquor cabinet – Buffalo Trace.
As for the origin story for this drink, it was created in Paris in the 1920s by an American expat named Erskine Gwynne who published a magazine also called “The Boulevardier.” Erskine, or “Skinny” as I just now chose to call him, was apparently quite fond of the name, Boulevardier And I don’t blame him, it is a badass name, but it can make for an awkward choice as to whether to pronounce it exactly as spelled, or with an over-the-top French accent: “Boulevard-ee-aaay.” Me and my dude Skinny G are going to leave it up to you how you want to take that forward.
Recipe Rationale:
Very similar to my previous post about the Negroni, I chose ingredients based on what was in my liquor cabinet:
Buffalo Trace (Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey): I like bourbon, but I’m no connoisseur and don’t really have passionate opinions on the multitude of delicious options available. This was the bottle we already had, and I like it, and to my palette, it worked quite well with this drink. Smooth and rich without overpowering the other ingredients.
Dolin Rouge Vermouth: As mentioned before, Dolin is my go-to vermouth and does a great job. I’ve not really stepped out of my vermouth comfort zone though, so if you have any recommendations, lay ‘em on me.
Campari: A staple. I’ve seen a couple comments on the internet with people substituting this with another bitter, but I feel like Campari needs to be the one constant in this drink.
We made two different versions – the traditional one that I posted above with equal parts bourbon, vermouth, and Campari, and a bourbon-forward recipe where we upped the bourbon to 1.5 oz to reduce the bitterness a bit and let the Buffalo Trace shine. We both agreed that the traditional recipe with equal parts was the winner. With the ingredients we chose, it turned out to be a very balanced, warm, and pleasantly bitter drink.
Verdict:
“Delicious! Between this and the Negroni, I’m a Boulevardier fan. The whiskey-forward recipe was a bit sweeter/less bitter than the traditional recipe, but didn’t taste nearly as good. The balanced recipe was spot on.”
Sab
“The traditional/balanced recipe is smoother and (shocker) more balanced than the bourbon-forward recipe. The bourbon-forward one starts out about the same, but then hits you with a big whiskey note at the back. With our earlier Negroni recipe, I preferred having a more pronounced gin presence, but with the Boulevardier, I liked having the bourbon play closer to the other ingredients. Maybe a different bourbon would yield a different reaction from me, but probably I’m just a gin guy.”
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