Addington

Roughly ten percent in the glass before the ice does any work, which puts it between a glass of wine and a spritz. That is the point rather than a compromise. It was built for the hours when a Martini would quietly end the rest of your afternoon.

Both bottles are fully exposed, so neither can be cheap. Look for a Turin-style rosso with real bitterness and a French dry that tastes of white wine rather than of nothing. Cocchi and Dolin are the easy pair. Carpano Antica is loud enough to bury the dry half.

Sharper, certainly. A slice sits in soda and keeps sweetening the drink while you work down it, where peel gives you the oil and none of the juice, which keeps the dry half in view. Express it over the surface, then decide whether the fruit goes in as well.

Take the rosso down rather than the dry up. Thirty milliliters of rosso against 45 of dry loses the sugar without going thin, and the soda stays at 60 either way. Reaching for more soda instead just waters the drink, which is a different problem from sweetness.

A classic Addington calls for 45 ml (1.5 oz) Sweet vermouth, 45 ml (1.5 oz) Dry vermouth, 60 ml (2 oz) Soda water. That single-serve spec scales cleanly — the recipe above converts it to oz and multiplies it for 2–4 drinks.

An Addington is built directly in the glass over ice — no shaker required. Add the ingredients in order and give it a brief, gentle stir.

Serve an Addington in a large wine glass, over fresh ice cubes.