The Enzoni is a gin sour with Campari, lemon, and muddled fresh grapes. The cocktail is widely attributed to Mauro Mahjoub, a Munich-based bartender, and was popularized in the American cocktail revival through the Pegu Club and PDT in the mid-2000s. The exact date and venue of origin are less well-documented than the recipe itself — the cocktail has appeared in print since the late 2000s under various credits.
Grapes muddled into the shaker, then strained out. The fruit doesn't sit on the rim — it sat in the shaker first.
An Italian-American Hybrid
The Enzoni is structurally a gin sour — gin, lemon, simple syrup — with two notable additions: an equal pour of Campari (bringing the bitter), and a small handful of muddled fresh grapes (bringing a delicate fruit body). The combination is unusual: bitter and grape-sweet at once, with the gin's juniper acting as the bridge. The name is presumed to be a pun on Negroni-adjacent territory, though no documented source confirms the etymology.
Attribution to Mauro Mahjoub is repeated in multiple printed and online sources — including The PDT Cocktail Book (2011) — though the original creation venue and date are not consistently documented across them. Calling this "a Mahjoub cocktail popularized in NYC in the mid-2000s" is the honest framing; calling it "created at the Pegu Club in 2006" overreaches.
The Spec
Six to eight fresh red or green grapes, muddled in a shaker tin. Add an ounce each of gin and Campari, three-quarter ounce of lemon juice, and a half ounce of simple syrup. Shake hard with ice, double-strain over a large cube in a rocks glass. The grapes are essential — substituting grape juice does not reproduce the fresh-fruit body.
Why Fresh Grapes
Grapes contribute texture and a subtle vinous quality that grape juice can't replicate — the seeds and skin release small amounts of tannin during muddling, which gives the cocktail body. Red or green both work; red gives a faintly deeper color, green a cleaner profile. Avoid varietally distinct grapes (Concord, table-grape Muscat) — their flavor will dominate the cocktail.
Double-Strain Mandatory
Muddled grape skin and pulp need to come out of the drink. Strain through the shaker's Hawthorne strainer first, then through a fine-mesh tea strainer over the glass. The cocktail should be clear, not cloudy.
Gin Choice
A London Dry — Tanqueray or Beefeater — is the standard. Tanqueray's juniper-forward character handles the Campari well. Avoid heavily-flavored modern gins (cucumber, citrus-forward) which fight the grape and Campari for attention.
Bottom Line
The Enzoni is an underrated drink — it asks for fresh grapes, which most home bars don't have on hand, but those are the only obstacle. The combination of Campari and muddled grape is genuinely uncommon, and the cocktail is one of the cleaner ways to make Campari approachable for drinkers who find Negroni-shaped drinks too dry. Try it during grape season; the fruit's quality matters.