Coronation No. 1
The Coronation No. 1 is two fortified wines in equal measure, seasoned with a barspoon of maraschino and a couple of dashes of orange bitters. There is no spirit in it at all, which makes it about a third the strength of a Martini and a great deal more useful across a long evening. The name belongs to a family of drinks written for royal occasions, and this one is usually placed at Edward VII's coronation in 1902. The date is traditional rather than documented, but the manners fit: it is restrained, dry and built for repetition rather than effect. The structure is the same one the Bamboo and the Adonis use, aromatised wine talking to fortified wine, with the maraschino as the difference. A very small amount of cherry funk lifts two austere wines into something that reads as an occasion. That is the whole trick, and it is worth a barspoon of anyone's time.
Glassware: Nick & Nora Glass
Garnish: Lemon Twist
Ingredients
45ml
Bone dry and slightly saline, and only good cold and recently opened. Amontillado makes a nuttier, rounder version if you want the drink to suit autumn rather than a summer afternoon.
45ml
An equal partner rather than a modifier, so the bottle matters as much as the sherry does. Keep it in the fridge and buy the smallest size you can find.
5ml
Five millilitres, measured. Maraschino is pungent and slightly funky, and at a teaspoon more it stops lifting the wines and starts sitting on top of them.
2 dashes
Two dashes for lift. Orange works better than aromatic bitters here because clove and cinnamon would weigh down a drink that has no spirit to carry them.
Instructions
Add the fino, dry vermouth, maraschino and orange bitters to a mixing glass.
Fill with cubed ice and stir for 20 seconds: wine chills faster than spirit.
Strain into a chilled Nick and Nora glass.
Express a lemon twist over the surface and drop it in.
Expert Tip
Both bottles need to be fresh and cold. There is nothing in this drink to hide behind: no spirit, no citrus, no sugar beyond five millilitres. A vermouth that has been open on a warm surface for a month will taste exactly as tired as it is, and so will a fino that has been standing about. Buy small bottles and keep both in the fridge. Half bottles of vermouth exist for precisely this reason, and fino sherry is a white wine that happens to be fortified, so it goes the same way an open Chablis does. Stir for twenty seconds rather than twenty-five. Wine chills faster than spirit, and over-diluting something already this light leaves you with cold water and a nice smell.
Behind the Coronation No. 1
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
Coronation cocktails were a small genre. Bar books of the period carried several, written to mark royal occasions and numbered when more than one survived, and the No.1 is the version that reached the Savoy Cocktail Book and stayed in print.
Edward VII's coronation in 1902 is the occasion most accounts attach to it. That attribution is traditional rather than evidenced, and it is worth saying so: the drink's style is consistent with the period, but no document ties the recipe to the day.
Two Wines and No Spirit
Fino sherry and dry vermouth are both wine, both fortified and both dry, which sounds like a recipe for something monotonous. It is not, because they are dry in different directions. Fino is saline and mineral, shaped by the flor yeast it ages under. Vermouth is herbal and faintly bitter, shaped by whatever the producer steeps in it.
Put them at equal measure and each one fills in what the other lacks. The sherry gives the drink a savoury spine; the vermouth gives it aromatics. Neither is strong enough to overrun the other, which is why the ratio is one to one rather than the two to one a Martini would use.
The Maraschino Barspoon
Five millilitres of maraschino is the entire difference between this and a Bamboo. It is not there for sweetness, though it does sweeten slightly. It is there for the funk: maraschino is made from whole Marasca cherries including the stones, and it carries a faintly medicinal, almondy note that neither wine has.
That note gives two flat, dry wines something to point at. Add more and it takes over, because maraschino is one of the loudest bottles on any back bar.
Why It Is Worth Making Now
Low-strength drinking was rediscovered about a decade ago and treated as an innovation. It was not. The Edwardians drank through occasions that ran for hours and wrote recipes accordingly, and the Coronation No. 1 is one of them: aromatic enough to hold attention, light enough that a third glass is not a decision.
Anyone building a low-alcohol list now will find the period bar books did most of the work already. The only thing that has really changed is the vocabulary: what a 1930s bar book filed under appetiser cocktails, a modern menu files under low-ABV, and the recipes are largely interchangeable.
How to Serve It
Stirred, strained into a chilled Nick and Nora, lemon twist expressed over the surface and dropped in. The twist is not optional. At this strength the aromatics are doing most of the work, and lemon oil is the brightest thing available to them.
Fino keeps it pale and saline; amontillado turns it darker and nuttier. Both are correct.
Make it at home
The Spirit
Maraschino LiqueurA clear liqueur distilled from whole Marasca cherries, stones and all. The pits are the point: they carry the almond note that makes it taste nutty and floral rather than fruity, and anyone expecting cherry sweetness from the bottle is in for a surprise.
Master the Techniques
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Coronation No. 1?
Which coronation is it named after?
Should I use fino or amontillado?
How strong is it?
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Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits