Negroni Riffing!

Why bartenders around the world can’t stop experimenting on a classic.

- Jake Emen

The Negroni, more than the martini or the Manhattan, has become the cocktail that signals you know what you’re doing: a nod to the bartender that you’re not messing around. Campari, sweet vermouth, and gin stirred together to achieve spirituous harmony—bitter but bright, sweet but strong.

Invented in 1919, it’s a classic, but it’s also spurred countless twists and riffs over the years. Consider the Negroni Sbagliato, which translates to the “wrong” or “false” Negroni. Legend goes that at Milan’s Bar Basso, a bartender mistakenly swapped gin for sparkling wine, but the customer loved it and voilà: The Sbagliato was born. It’s a great story, but it appears to be apocryphal: The Negroni Sbagliato may not be so sbagliato, after all.

“It’s just a story; [my father] was experimenting with many drinks,” says Maurizio Stocchetto, whose father, Mirko, bought the bar 50 years ago and is credited with creating the drink in the early 1970s. “It was tongue-in-cheek, but the name was very catchy.”