Whisky Cocktails

Boulevardier

In Paris in 1927, “Erskinne Gwynne” “crashed in with his Boulevardier Cocktail”, according to Barflies and Cocktails. The recipe was equal parts bourbon, Campari and Italian vermouth.[2] Today, the Boulevardier combines bourbon or rye whiskey, Campari and sweet red vermouth, with the International Bartenders Association giving the whiskey a little more room.[10]

Make a Boulevardier

Stir with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass and finish with citrus zest. The recipe below halves the International Bartenders Association specification for a smaller serving, keeping its proportions intact.[10] For more recipes, see the whisky cocktail guide.

Recipe source: International Bartenders Association, quantities scaled to half its published measure.[10]

Serves: one.
Glass: chilled cocktail glass.
Ice: for stirring.
Origin: first known recipe published in 1927; authorship disputed.[2][9]

Ingredients

22.5 ml bourbon or rye whiskey (about 0.76 fl oz).
15 ml Campari (about 0.51 fl oz).
15 ml sweet red vermouth (about 0.51 fl oz).
Orange zest or lemon zest, to garnish.

Method

Stir the whiskey, Campari and vermouth with ice.
Strain into the chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with orange or lemon zest.[10]

Measure rather than free pour, keep water and food alongside, and take breaks. To preserve the chosen recipe, reduce every ingredient by the same amount. Changing only the whiskey changes the balance.

Choosing the whiskey and ratio

Bourbon belongs to the 1927 recipe; the IBA allows bourbon or rye. There is a Canadian Club version too, reported by Toby Cecchini in Harry's ABC of Mixing Cocktails. The drink's history accommodates more than one whiskey choice.[2][7][10]

Choose your specification before reaching for the measure. These three recipes share a name, but give the whiskey noticeably different shares of the glass:

Source	Whiskey	Campari	Vermouth
1927 recipe[2]	1 part	1 part	1 part
IBA[10]	1.5 parts	1 part	1 part
Cecchini, 2012[7]	2 parts	1 part	1 part

The IBA's full quantities are 45 ml whiskey (about 1.5 fl oz), 30 ml Campari (about 1 fl oz) and 30 ml sweet red vermouth (about 1 fl oz). Cecchini's 2012 recipe uses 2:1:1. Difford's Guide now favours 2:1:1 too, having previously preferred 3:2:2.[4][7][10]

Equal parts gives you the earliest known recipe; a larger whiskey measure follows the later specifications above. Neither needs to correct the other. Name the source when sharing a recipe, and the proportions speak clearly without a contest over authenticity.

Origin: the Paris record

The story begins with a book. Published in Paris in 1927, Barflies and Cocktails is credited to “Harry and Wynn”, with slight contributions from Arthur Moss. It lists Harry's New York Bar at 5, Rue Daunou.[1]

The Boulevardier appears in Moss's chapter “Cocktails Round Town”, not the alphabetical recipe list, according to the historical accounts in Difford's Guide and Bar-Vademecum. On EUVS digital page 80, the passage introduces “Erskinne Gwynne” and sets out the ingredients in equal thirds.[2][4][8]

Story box

story_title: A Paris recipe with a named arrival

founding_story: The first known recipe appears in the Paris book Barflies and Cocktails, 1927, which introduces Gwynne's Boulevardier with bourbon, Campari and Italian vermouth.[1][2]

documented_record: Gwynne “crashed in with his Boulevardier Cocktail”, the passage says. It credits him with bringing the drink into the account, but does not say who first mixed it.[2]

sources and claim_source_mapping: Publication details: 1927 book. Recipe and wording: EUVS digital page 80.

last_checked: 7 November 2026.

The name also belonged to Gwynne's Paris magazine, The Boulevardier. Cecchini connects the cocktail's name to the magazine; Difford's Guide reports that Moss, Gwynne and Jed Kiley co-founded it, with Ernest Hemingway among its contributors.[4][7]

Who created it?

claim: Harry McElhone created the Boulevardier at Gwynne's suggestion.

verdict: Disputed.

what_the_record_shows: The 1927 book credits Gwynne with the cocktail. Campari Group's later account says McElhone made it at Gwynne's suggestion at Harry's New York Bar.[2][9]

evidence_against_or_gap: The contemporary passage does not identify who first mixed the drink.

earliest_known_source: The earliest source for the McElhone attribution is not reliably established. Barflies and Cocktails, 1927, supplies the earlier credit to Gwynne.

sources: 1927 passage, compared with Campari Group's account, undated.

last_checked: 7 November 2026.

Two common misconceptions

It is simply a Negroni variation. The comparison explains the ingredients neatly, but not necessarily the drink's ancestry. Ted Haigh calls it “a Negroni with bourbon in lieu of gin”. He also reports that the Negroni did not appear in print until 20 years after the Boulevardier's 1927 recipe. Publication order does not, by itself, settle which drink was invented first.[2][5]

It has always been a whiskey heavy classic. The first known recipe gives whiskey, Campari and vermouth equal shares. Later specifications increased the whiskey, while Bar-Vademecum credits Ted Haigh and other bartenders with reviving the drink during the cocktail renaissance. Its account also records different drinks bearing the Boulevardier name. Identify the recipe as well as the cocktail, and those distinctions become clear.[2][8]

Following the later recipes

The Boulevardier name has not always meant bourbon, Campari and vermouth. Bar-Vademecum reports that Cocktails de Paris in 1929 used it for a drink combining Dubonnet, Raphaël, Campari and Courvoisier. The same account records a return to bourbon, Campari and sweet vermouth in Haigh's Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, published in 2009, this time with a cherry garnish.[8]

The garnish changes with the source too. The IBA allows orange or lemon zest, Cecchini specifies lemon, and Haigh's published version uses a cherry. Treat these as recipe choices rather than tests of authenticity. For the smaller serving above, use the IBA's citrus option.[7][8][10]

Where to go next

Explore the wider repertoire in our whisky cocktail guide, then turn to whichever neighbouring recipe catches your interest.

Old Fashioned: a different starting point for a whiskey cocktail.
Manhattan: a neighbouring entry in the whisky cocktail guide.
Whiskey Sour: a separate recipe for your cocktail reference collection.

Sources

[1] EUVS Vintage Cocktail Books. 1927 Barflies and Cocktails. Digitised edition of the 1927 publication.
https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/1927-Barflies-and-Cocktails

[2] EUVS Vintage Cocktail Books. 1927 Barflies and Cocktails, digital page 80. Digitised edition of the 1927 publication.
https://euvs-vintage-cocktail-books.cld.bz/1927-Barflies-and-Cocktails/80/

[4] Difford's Guide. Boulevardier. Online trade reference, undated.
https://www.diffordsguide.com/cocktails/recipe/2955/boulevardier

[5] Imbibe, Ted Haigh. History Lesson: The Boulevardier. 4 December 2009.
https://imbibemagazine.com/the-history-of-the-boulevardier-cocktail/

[7] The New York Times T Magazine, Toby Cecchini. Case Study: The Boulevardier. 2 February 2012.
https://archive.nytimes.com/tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/case-study-the-boulevardier/

[8] Bar-Vademecum. Boulevardier. Online trade history, undated.
https://bar-vademecum.eu/boulevardier/

[9] Campari Group. Boulevardier: The recipe of that moment. Undated producer's account.
https://www.camparigroup.com/en/spiritheque/boulevardier

[10] International Bartenders Association. Boulevardier. Online cocktail specification, undated.
https://iba-world.com/iba-cocktail/boulevardier/

This desk research article uses the supplied verified fact sheet, distinguishing the digitised 1927 record from later trade histories and the producer's account.

Last checked: November 2026