Dubonnet

Dubonnet is a French quinquina — an aromatized, fortified wine flavoured with cinchona bark, the source of quinine, alongside herbs and spices over a sweetened wine base. Deep ruby-garnet in colour, it is rich, spiced and gently bitter, its sweetness cut by the dry, medicinal edge of quinine. It was created in Paris in 1846 by the wine merchant and chemist Joseph Dubonnet, whose formula was devised to help French Foreign Legionnaires in North Africa swallow their bitter antimalarial quinine by dressing it in sweet, aromatic wine. At around 15 percent alcohol it drinks as a classic aperitif — poured chilled over ice with a twist of lemon — and it is best remembered as the favourite tipple of Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother, who took it with gin.