Negroni Week runs from 21 to 27 September 2026. Bars around the world pour Negronis for a week and donate to Slow Food. That's as good an excuse as any to make the drink properly. Before we go further: we make a Negroni ourselves, so we're not neutral on the subject. We are, though, quite good at it.
The short version
- Negroni Week 2026 is 21 to 27 September. Imbibe Magazine started it in 2013 and it has raised more than $5 million for charity since (negroniweek.com).
- The official recipe is equal parts: 30ml gin, 30ml Campari, 30ml sweet red vermouth, stirred over ice (IBA).
- The 1919 Florence origin story is the accepted one, but a member of the Negroni family has disputed it in writing.
- The three twists worth knowing are the Boulevardier (1927), the Sbagliato (1972) and the White Negroni (2001).
What Negroni Week actually is
Imbibe Magazine launched Negroni Week in 2013 with about 120 venues. Campari became the main sponsor in 2014, and the event now runs in more than 12,000 bars and restaurants worldwide. Each venue pays a minimum $25 donation to take part, and the money goes to Slow Food, which works on fairer, more sustainable food and drink. All of that is on the Negroni Week site, along with the venue map if you want to find somewhere pouring near you.
If you run a bar in South Lanarkshire and fancy signing up, you know where to find us for the gin.
Where the Negroni came from (probably)
The standard story goes like this. In 1919, at the Casoni bar in Florence, a regular called Count Camillo Negroni asked bartender Fosco Scarselli to put a bit more backbone into his usual Americano (Campari, sweet vermouth and soda). Scarselli swapped the soda water for gin. Other customers started asking for "one of Count Negroni's drinks", and the name stuck. The bar later became Caffè Giacosa. Luca Picchi, head bartender at the nearby Caffè Rivoire for years, documented all this in his book Sulle tracce del conte.
Not everyone agrees. A Colonel Hector Andres Negroni has argued there's no Count Camillo in a family genealogy that runs back to the 11th century. His candidate is a French general, Pascal Olivier de Negroni. Difford's Guide lays out both sides. Whoever it was, the drink made the International Bartenders Association's list of classic cocktails in 1961, according to Campari's own history page, and it hasn't left.
The version you'll get in most decent bars today matches the IBA specification: 30ml gin, 30ml Campari, 30ml sweet red vermouth. Pour straight into a chilled old fashioned glass (a short tumbler) full of ice, stir gently, and garnish with half an orange slice. That's the whole recipe. The skill is in the ratio and the ice, not the shaking.
Three twists that earned their place
Bartenders have been fiddling with the Negroni almost since it appeared. Most of the results are forgettable. These three aren't.
| Twist | What changes | Who, where, when |
|---|---|---|
| Boulevardier | Bourbon replaces the gin, usually a little heavier on the bourbon (1.5:1:1) | Harry McElhone, Harry's New York Bar, Paris, 1927 |
| Negroni Sbagliato | Prosecco replaces the gin; lighter, lower in alcohol, better before dinner | Mirko Stocchetto, Bar Basso, Milan, 1972 |
| White Negroni | Lillet Blanc (a light French aperitif wine) for the vermouth, gentian-bitter Suze for the Campari | Wayne Collins, Vinexpo, Bordeaux, 2001 |
The Boulevardier appears in McElhone's 1927 book Barflies and Cocktails (Difford's Guide). "Sbagliato" means "mistaken": Stocchetto reached for the wrong bottle (Imbibe). Collins mixed the White Negroni for Plymouth Gin's Nick Blacknell on a hot night, with whatever the local shop had (Punch).
Try the Sbagliato if a standard Negroni is too much. If you like a softer gin in it, an Old Tom takes the edge off the Campari without losing the juniper.
How we make ours
Our bottled Negroni is Biggar Strength Gin, Campari and Cocchi Vermouth di Torino, mixed at the distillery and bottled at 27% ABV. We use the navy strength gin (57% ABV) rather than our original recipe (40%) because Campari and vermouth are both loud, and a 40% gin tends to get talked over. At 57% the juniper holds its own. The Biggar Negroni Ready to Serve is £34, and the same mix comes as a 20cl bottle if you'd rather try one first. Pour it over a big block of ice, add orange, and you're done.
The home version
If you're mixing at home with a standard-strength gin, the IBA ratio works as written. We prefer a peel to a slice, but that's the only change:
- 30ml Biggar Gin
- 30ml Campari
- 30ml sweet red vermouth (Cocchi Vermouth di Torino or Carpano Antica if you can get them)
Fill an old fashioned glass with ice, pour everything in, and stir for about 20 seconds. Garnish with a strip of orange peel, twisted over the drink so the oils land on the surface. If it tastes harsh, the fix is almost always colder ice and a longer stir, not more vermouth. The 3:2:1 principle explains why equal-parts drinks like this are harder to balance than they look.
The Clyde Valley Plum Gin Negroni
Every autumn we make a limited run of Clyde Valley Plum Recipe, a 40% gin infused with plums grown only in the Clyde Valley. It sells out, so whether you can try this depends on when you're reading. When you can get it, swap it for the gin in the recipe above, one part each. The plum brings its own bittersweet fruit, which sits between the Campari and the vermouth rather than fighting them. It's the twist we're proudest of, and the one visitors on a distillery tour ask about most.
We've been muttering about an oak-aged plum gin Negroni for a while. If we ever get round to it, you'll read about it here first.
If you'd rather stir something simpler, our easy gin cocktails post covers five drinks that need even less effort than this one.
