SOBRERO TASTING
Saturday, January 28
3-6pm

We’ll be Havana good time again at Vino this Thursday as when we’ll be using El Dorado Rum and Luxardo Maraschino to mix the classic Cuban cocktail: Daiquirì! Traditionally made from rum, lime juice and sugar, this quintessential Cuban cocktail is said to have been invented around 1800 by a group of American mining engineers working at the Daiquirì iron mine near Santiago. It was Jennings Cox, General Manager of the Spanish American Iron Co., who is credited with creating the drink at the Venus bar, not far from Daiquirì beach. Some believe Cox accidentally came up with the Daiquirì after he ran out of gin.

The daiquirì remained a local favorite until the early twentieth century, when Admiral Lucius W. Johnson, a U.S. Navy medical officer, introduced the drink to the Army and Navy Club in Washington, D.C. By the 1940s, as Latin America’s cultural appeal increased, the cocktail began to obtain international status thanks to those served at Havana’s El Floridita bar (above), seeping its way into popular culture thanks to famous daiquirì drinkers such as Ernest Hemingway, JFK and, er, Fredo Corleone.

Today the El Floridita is content to mine its past as a hangout for Cuban exiles such as Hemingway, whose statue props up the bar, while his hand-written message of affection rests appended to the wall: “My mojito in La Bodeguita, my daiquirì in El Floridita.”

Cocktail Hour: DAIQUIRÌ
Thursday, January 26
5:30-7:30pm

Come in from the cold this Saturday afternoon as we pour two of our favorite winter wines: a warming white from Rioja and a Moroccan Syrah!

Bold & Cold Weather Wines
Saturday, January 21
3:00-6:00pm

SHERRY & PORT TASTING
Friday, January 20
5:30-7-30pm

Not to be confused with the coffee that goes by the same name, an after breakfast “Americano” refers to a cocktail composed of Campari, sweet vermouth and club soda. The drink was first served at Milan’s Caffè Campari in the 1860s, where it was originally known as the “Milano-Torino” because of its ingredients: Campari, the bitter herbaceous liqueur, is from Milan while the red vermouth, be it Cinzano or Martini, comes from Turin. It was renamed “Americano” after the war, when Italians noticed the drink was enjoyed particularly by Americans. Today it remains one of the simplest, most popular choices come aperitivo hour — for Americans or Italians.

AMERICANO TASTING
Thursday, January 19
5:30-7:30pm



Artwork by James C. Taylor (ommaggio a Mimmo Rotella).