Death in the Afternoon

Death in the Afternoon is Ernest Hemingway's Champagne cocktail — a measure of absinthe poured into a flute and topped slowly with chilled Champagne until the drink turns pale and opalescent. Anise-scented and deceptively elegant, it looks like a simple glass of fizz but drinks strong, at roughly 15 percent alcohol, the louche of the absinthe clouding the wine to a soft, milky gold.

Balanced15% ABV

Pale and opalescent, Death in the Afternoon smells first of cooling anise and liquorice from the absinthe, backed by the green, faintly medicinal lift of wormwood and fennel and the dry, biscuity, mineral aroma of Champagne rising on fine bubbles. On the palate it is crisp and dry with a soft anise sweetness up front, a bracing herbal bitterness through the middle, and a clean, cooling, faintly numbing finish. Elegant and delicate to look at but deceptively strong at around 15 percent alcohol in the glass, it drinks far more like a serious aperitif than its light sparkle suggests.