COCKTAIL RECIPE: LE SIRENUSE

When it was first introduced at Aldo’s bar a few years back, the cocktail that bears the hotel’s name was, says head barman Roberto Pane, “a variation on the classic French 75, based on gin, lemon juice and champagne”.

However, although this first incarnation captured the breezy elegance of the Positano hotel founded in 1951, Roberto thought it would be cool also to bring the iconic Pompeii-red hue of Le Sirenuse’s walls into the mix. After a few experiments, he eventually hit on not one but two crimson helpmates, one of them the classic northern Italian bitters aperitif, Campari, the other the remarkable Slow Gin, produced in limited quantities by Winestillery, a family-run company based in Tuscany’s Chianti region. It’s made by gently infusing the winemaking residue known as grape marc in gin. Like the blackthorn berries that are infused to make the British homemade hooch known as sloe gin, this mix of skins, seeds and pulp is rich in aromatics and antioxidants.

Topped up with champagne, Le Sirenuse would not be Le Sirenuse without the tumbler it’s served in – the Bora, hand-blown at Carlo Moretti’s historic glassworks on the Venetian island of Murano. A work of art as much as a glass (no two are alike), the Bora has been a feature of aperitivo hour at the hotel ever since the opening of Aldo’s predecessor, the Champagne Bar, in 2000.

LE SIRENUSE