YOUR ULTIMATE MARTINI WEAPON

There’s nothing like a good martini. It is, and has been for 100 years, the touchstone of elegance. Bracing and ice-cold, with a diamond-like brilliance, from the first sip to the last it has the clarity of a bell ringing on a cold night, and making a perfect one for your guests is the quickest liquid way to bring refinement to your party.

The best tool to make an outstanding martini is the right gin, and without a doubt one of the finest is Monkey 47. It eschews the structured juniper backbone of most gins (go for Tanqueray No. 10 if you want that kind of martini) and instead is all silky finesse. If Tanqueray is a linebacker, Monkey 47 is a soccer midfielder, lithe and capable, with more gears and a softer touch.

Bottled at 94 proof and even with nearly four dozen ingredients, this gin feels synergistic, each sip delicate and fascinating, with chamomile and evergreen and citrus and tea tree and cucumber and on and on and on. It’s almost hauntingly complex. Wine critic Robert Parker called it the greatest gin he has ever tasted.

Try it 5:1 with Dolin Dry Vermouth, stirred, and a lemon peel. Or, for that matter, use it in a gimlet or French 75. A happy corollary of a gin that’s ideal for martinis is that it’s ideal for most everything else, too.