About the Vieux Carré cocktail
The Vieux Carré is a classic New Orleans cocktail made with rye whiskey, cognac, sweet vermouth, Bénédictine, and bitters. It is rich, boozy, spicy, herbal, and smooth, with rye bringing structure and bite, cognac adding softer fruit and floral notes, and Bénédictine giving the drink honeyed herbal complexity.
Created in the 1930s by bartender Walter Bergeron at the Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, the Vieux Carré takes its name from the French term for the city’s French Quarter. The drink captures that neighborhood’s mix of influences in the glass: French cognac, Italian vermouth, American rye, French herbal liqueur, and Creole-style bitters all working together in one deeply layered stirred classic.
