The Milano-Torino Cocktail Recipe | Wine Enthusiast

By WineBottleMag
October 20, 2024
Cocktail Enthusiast MilanoTorino Recipe Wine
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Like most beautiful, important things, the Negroni didn’t appear out of nowhere. The beloved bittersweet cocktail made of sweet vermouth, Campari and gin is indebted to the foundational, but lesser-known drink that came half a century before it: The Milano-Torino.

The History of the Milano-Torino

The first known cocktail to use Campari, the two-ingredient drink, also known as Mi-To, is a simple blend of the bitter red liqueur and sweet Vermouth from Turin. Gaspare Campari is believed to have first mixed the drink in Milan in the 1860s. At some point around this time, Campari added soda water to the concoction, creating the Americano. Fast forward to 1919 at Florence’s Caffè Casoni, when another building block was added; gin took the place of soda and the Negroni was born.

The Negroni has only grown in ubiquity since. Modern riffs like the white negroni (bitter gentian liqueur Suze swapped in for Campari and Lillet for the vermouth) and the decades-old but recently TikTok-famous sbagliato (Prosecco for the gin) keep the cocktail a fixture on bar and restaurant menus. And yet the Milano-Torino remains one of those classic cocktails with “if you know, you know” popularity, even though it started it all.

Why the disconnect? Sossio Del Prete, bar manager at Rumore Milano in Italy, says that the addition of gin lent the Negroni “a broader, more assertive flavor profile that has universal appeal.” He adds, “The Milano-Torino, by contrast, is a more subtle, balanced cocktail.”

While subtlety doesn’t always win out, contemporary palates are continuing to skew bitter, in part thanks to the world’s ongoing love affair with Negronis and spritzes, and the cocktail that started it all is due for a comeback.

“The Milano-Torino perfectly captures the essence of Italian aperitivo culture,” says Francesco Cione, corporate bars and beverage director at beefbar, who notes that Milano-style bitter liqueur and red Vermouth di Torino “create a depth of flavor that feels timeless.”

And then there’s the romance of it all. Cione finds that the cocktail succinctly represents the “elegance of two of the country’s most iconic spirits from two of its most important cities, Milan and Turin.”

Enter Vermouth

This brings us to vermouth—the “Torino” part of the cocktail.

The very first Italian cocktails were simple combinations of vermouth plus soda water, a tradition traced to Turin, the birthplace of Vermouth di Torino and, not so coincidentally, where Gaspare Campari found the inspiration for his herbal namesake liqueur.

Del Prete sticks with Vermouth di Torino, rather than swapping in other vermouths, because “it not only adds authenticity, but also brings a rich, complex blend of herbal notes,” he says. “It keeps the roots of the drink intact.”

Indeed, vermouth is an enormously vast category of aromatized wine, and the Mi-To requires something specific.

“Vermouths vary from region to region with acidity levels and sugar,” says Alba Huerta, owner of cocktail bar Julep Houston. “The Vermouth di Torino has the weight and sugar to balance the bitters in the Milano-Torino cocktail.” As “a luscious vermouth,” says Huerta, it’s an essential complement to the Campari.

While there is even variability among Vermouth di Torino, which is classified with an Indicazione Geografica Protetta (IGP), or protected geographic origin, they all must contain bitter artemisia (wormwood) and be made in Piedmont, with 16% and 22% alcohol-by-volume.

That isn’t to say it’s impossible to play with the vermouth component.

“I think any Italian would be seriously upset if Torino vermouth weren’t used,” says Blake Antrobus, bar lead for La Dolce Vita in Beverly Hills, who thinks that, in a pinch, any vermouth “with a good wormwood component” would work. “There are so many small vermouth producers that you shouldn’t feel constrained by only using brands from the Torino Institute.”

How to Serve a Milano-Torino

At Rumore, in Milan, Del Prete makes the Milano-Torino “in the classic style.” This means equal parts Milano-style bitter, usually Campari, and red Vermouth di Torino. He stirs it over ice and serves the cocktail in a lowball glass filled with “crystal-clear ice cubes.”

The garnish matters, too. “A large peel of orange adds a fresh touch, balancing the bitterness and sweetness of the drink,” says Del Prete.

While a worthy drink on its own, the Mi-To is a fundamental building block to so many great cocktails. “If you add a generous amount of fresh seltzer water and serve it in a taller glass, you get another Italian classic: the Americano,” says Cione. But why not stick with the original? “The Milano-Torino perfectly captures the essence of Italian aperitivo culture.”