Cocktail & Other Recipes By Spirit Gin Cocktails

Quill Riff

By
Kelly Magyarics
Kelly Magyarics
Kelly Magyarics
Kelly Magyarics, DWS, is a wine, spirits, travel, food and lifestyle writer and wine educator.
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Updated 09/29/20
Quill Riff cocktail
Image:

Liquor.com / Tim Nusog 

Keith Meicher, the head bartender at Sepia in Chicago, finds that blanc vermouth has a great affinity for absinthe. This white variation on a Quill, essentially an absinthe-tinged Negroni, sees sweet red vermouth replaced with white, and Campari with Luxardo Bitter Bianco. 

It’s a great beginner cocktail for the absinthe-curious, since it contains just a small amount of the green spirit to coat the glass, adding subtle scent and flavor. “Some people might be turned off of absinthe because they fear it’s too dominant a flavor,” says Meicher. “But with a deft hand, you can balance any cocktail.” 


Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 ounces London dry gin
  • 1 ounce Dolin blanc vermouth
  • 3/4 ounce Luxardo Bitter Bianco
  • Absinthe, to rinse glass
  • Garnish: grapefruit twist

Steps

  1. Rinse a rocks glass with absinthe and discard excess.

  2. Add all ingredients into a mixing glass with ice and stir until well-chilled.

  3. Strain into the prepared rocks glass over a fresh large ice cube.

  4. Garnish with a grapefruit twist.