Angus Winchester, global brand ambassador for Tanqueray. (Photo: Tanqueray)
I warmed up to
Angus Winchester the moment he told me his favorite cocktail was
The Negroni.
The dashing Englishman, who was in town last week for the
Tanqueray Green Room Tour, serves as the well-known spirit's global brand ambassador, which means he is one hell of a cocktail expert.
Winchester has one of the greatest jobs on the planet: He travels the world sharing his vast knowledge of gin, cocktail culture and his experiences in the scene (The James Bond of Bartending?!). He's so popular, in fact, that he was named the
Best International Brand Ambassador during last summer's
Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards. On Tuesday, the talented 'tender was named
Wine Enthusiast's
Mixologist/Brand Ambassador of the Year.
Chicago was one of several cities on the tour he visited to conduct a number of cocktail seminars and
bartender evaluations. A few hours were also set aside to hang with several of us food & drink writers at some of his favorite bars in town.
He took us to
The Aviary, Sable Kitchen & Bar and
Violet Hour, which he believes have some of the city's best gin cocktails. We sipped a number of classics, including the Aviation, Bee's Knees, Gimlet, and, of course, the Negroni.
During our little cocktail pub crawl, he answered a few burning questions:
