The French 75 – Food & Drinks

Why you are pouring this tonight

The French 75 is what you pour when the afternoon gets formal. A long flute of sparkling gin with a proper lemon hit, named after a field artillery gun from 1917 because it hits that hard. It is brunch upgraded, and it is New Year’s Eve done properly.

This is the cocktail you reach for before a dinner that matters. Anniversary, promotion, thirtieth birthday, first dinner party in the new house. A silver tray, six of these, a plate of oysters, and the tone for the evening is set before anyone has sat down.

It costs the same as any other cocktail to make (you already have the gin and lemon) but it reads as five-star. The prosecco does the visible work and does it beautifully. If you have a bottle of Champagne you want to show off, this is where it earns its keep.

What you need

30 ml London Dry gin. Tanqueray at $55 or Beefeater at $50 are both excellent. Four Pillars Rare Dry if you want to lean Australian. The gin should be juniper-forward, not floral. This is not the drink for a soft modern gin.
15 ml fresh lemon juice. Always fresh. Bottled lemon juice ruins this drink faster than almost any other.
10 ml sugar syrup. Equal parts sugar and hot water, stirred until clear. Keeps in the fridge for a month.
90 ml cold Prosecco, Cava, or Champagne. Prosecco Brut is the Australian weeknight choice (Dal Zotto Pucino, Brown Brothers, Zilzie). Cava works beautifully. If you are opening Champagne, a non-vintage brut like Pol Roger or Veuve.
Ice for the shaker.
A long lemon twist to garnish. Peel one long strip with a vegetable peeler, from the top of the lemon to the bottom, no pith.

How to make it

Chill the flute. Put a champagne flute or coupe in the freezer for ten minutes, or fill with ice water while you build the drink. Every part of this cocktail wants to be cold.
Shake the gin base. In a cocktail shaker, combine the gin, lemon juice, and sugar syrup with a handful of ice. Shake hard for ten to twelve seconds. You want it properly cold and diluted.
Strain into the flute. Empty the ice water from the chilled flute and strain the shaken base in through a Hawthorne strainer. It should fill about the bottom third of the glass.
Top with sparkling wine. Slowly pour cold Prosecco or Champagne down the side of the glass to fill. Pour slowly or you lose the bubbles.
Garnish and serve. Drop in the long lemon twist so it spirals down through the drink. Serve immediately while it is still aggressively cold and fizzing.

Five dinners that make this drink sing

A dozen oysters on ice with mignonette and lemon. The drink is already built like an oyster accompaniment. Cold, citrus, mineral, dry. Serve it as the welcome drink and keep pouring.
Smoked salmon blini with creme fraiche and dill. A classic drinks-party pairing. The acidity of the French 75 cuts through the rich salmon and cream, and the lemon twist mirrors the garnish on the blini.
Steak tartare with capers, shallots, and sourdough. Punchy raw beef needs something bright and cold. A French 75 handles it better than any wine under $80.
Roast chicken with lemon and thyme. Sunday lunch, upgraded. Pour one with the first carving and watch a roast chicken suddenly feel like an occasion.
Shellfish towers, whole seafood platters, or a plate of prawns with aioli. Any cold seafood with good lemon in the mix works. This is the default pour at a seafood lunch on the deck.

Three small variations worth knowing

The French 76

Swap the gin for vodka. Same lemon, same syrup, same sparkling. Softer, cleaner, more neutral. Excellent with rich French food like coq au vin or beef bourguignon where you want the acidity but not the herbal gin edge.

The Elderflower 75

Replace the sugar syrup with 10 ml St-Germain elderflower liqueur. Floral, slightly sweeter, spring-lunch perfect. Brilliant with whole poached trout, asparagus with hollandaise, or a fresh pea risotto.

The Ruby 75

Add 10 ml of Chambord or fresh raspberry puree at the base of the flute. Pour the French 75 over. The colour is a deep pink gradient and the berry note is gorgeous with a dark chocolate fondant or a piece of strawberry tart at the end of a long lunch.

Bottles worth buying for this

A solid London Dry gin (Tanqueray, Beefeater, Four Pillars Rare Dry) is the spine. It doubles as your Martini, Negroni, and Gin and Tonic base. Stock one.

Sparkling wine matters more than people admit. Dal Zotto Pucino Prosecco at $25 from a decent bottle shop is a genuine upgrade over supermarket Prosecco. Brown Brothers at $22 is the backup. For Champagne, a non-vintage Bollinger Special Cuvee or Pol Roger Brut if the occasion calls for it.

Tanqueray London Dry Gin

The French 75 gin. London Dry juniper and a backbone of 47.3% alcohol that can hold its own when the lemon juice and champagne both try to push it out of the glass. This is not a drink that flatters a soft gin.

Dal Zotto Pucino Prosecco NV

The weekday upgrade. A dry Italian prosecco from the King Valley that gives you the fine bubbles and mineral dryness a French 75 needs without Champagne money. Best served from a cold fridge into a cold flute.