May 3-Left Bank Martini
We have a cocktail today by the main man of Difford’s Guide himself, Simon DIfford. Today we are talking about the Left Bank Martini. With the name Left Bank Martini, France nerds can probably tell it has a wine component. This is because the term “Left Bank typically refers to a small region below the Gironde Estuary in the Bordeaux region of France. Even more so this cocktail references the Saint-Germain-des-Pres, a district on the left bank of the River Siene in France, don’t you love it when a name has layers like onions and ogres?
Let’s get into the actual cocktail itself. which cann be found here https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/2464/left-bank-martini . To make this a more appetizing ccocktail I recommend using a Sauvignon Blanc over a Chardonnay. The reason behind this is to use a less rich wine to balance the richness of the St. Germain elderflower liqueur but if you love Chardonnay and have a taste for a richer cocktail, then go for it as it will still be amazing. Another note is on the St. Germain, if you cannot find the exact bottle, I find St. Elder to be a fantastic substitute. If you do end up using St. Elder I would use Chardonnay as it is not as rich as St. Germain. But like other cocktails this one is best enjoyed how you like it so I encourage you to play around with different wines to find your perfect specs.
I also don;t use too expensive of a wine for this cocktail and there are 2 reasons for this. The first is as a functioning adult I need to budget my liquor bill with rent and food. The other is I find it a waste of great wine, will it be decadent and amazing, yes but not to the level that I would pay for a $100 bottle of wine for this cocktail, give me the cheap stuff and I’ll make it work. Even boxed wine will shine in this cocktail, but I can understand more if you have an aversion to that stuff from some college experiences I seem to hear from friends of mine where they abused it. It always seems to be boxed wine and jaeger that give the most reviled reaction becauce of college.
I would say the ingredient that shines most in this cocktail is the gin. This is because the botanicals of the gin play really well with most white wines and the St. Germain. And the lime twist just pushes that to the limit in the best possible way. It is for this reason I would say use your favourite gin. If you don’t know I am here to help in the comments. If you are just starting with gin I would use Beefeater. If you liuke a sharper flavour to the gin, I would use Citadelle which is my go-to bottle. Other than this use thew best quality and your favourtie flavour. When my dad visited California recently he brouyght me a bottle of gin back called Junipero which also works great in this cocktail, but obviously as it is in the name it has a Junipery flavour.
So what should you take from this? Experiment with different bottles and find what works for you. This cocktail is the best example of one you coulkd do this with we have seen so far. As al;ways the full scorecards can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18nn2xibkdyBpOWbblU5K33qi_wluFNc4wXnF6PZhvXI/edit?tab=t.0 .So I leave you here, Happy Drinking!!!