Friday Cocktail: The Solstice

In honor of tomorrow's Summer solstice, I bring you the Solstice cocktail. Creator John Deragon serves this drink in December for the Winter solstice, which makes sense for a booze forward whiskey cocktail. For those like me that drink brown liquor cocktails year round, however, this drink works just as well once the sun goes down on a 100 degree day in Atlanta. For a spirit forward drink, it is complex but also surprisingly balanced and drinkable. 

The recipe calls for Dubonnet Rouge, but any rose colored apéritif wine, such as Lillet Rouge or Cocchi Americano Rosa, will work well. In my opinion, there is no suitable substitute for the Amaro Nonino. As with any cocktail using grenadine, use a good quality grenadine or make your own to bring out the best in the rye and apple brandy.

Solstice

Adapted from recipe by John Deragon in PDT Cocktail Book

- 1.5 oz. Rittenhouse Bonded Rye

- .5 oz. Laird's Bonded Apple Brandy

- .5 oz. Amaro Nonino

- .5 oz. Dubonnet Rouge (or Cocchi Americano Rosa)

- .25 oz. Grenadine

Combine ingredients in mixing glass with ice.  Stir and strain into chilled cocktail glass. No garnish.

Friday Cocktail: Two New Orleans Classics

In preparation for my wedding anniversary trip to New Orleans this weekend, I thought it was appropriate to hit a couple of classic Crescent City cocktails.  Outside of New York, New Orleans may be one of the best cocktail destinations in the country. It is host to the awesome Tales of the Cocktail festival hosted every summer and is also responsible for classics such as the Sazerac and Vieux Carré.

Sazerac

Adapted form Wiliam Boothby, World Drinks and How to Mix Them, 1908

The Sazerac is the cocktail most synonymous with New Orleans. In fact, the Louisiana legislature made it the official cocktail of New Orleans in 2008.  As with many cocktails, it was originally made with cognac at the Sazerac Coffee House. When Thomas H. Handy became the owner of the establishment in the late 1800s, he replaced the cognac with rye.  It was this recipe that was published in Boothby's classic, World Drinks and How to Mix Them in 1908. It is an Old Fashioned variant that is served without ice and takes on a lot of anise flavor from both the New Orleans staple Peychaud's bitters and the absinthe or Herbsaint rinse. There are very few cocktails that are its equal.

- 2 oz. Rittenhouse or Sazerac Rye 

- 3 dashes Peychaud's Bitters

- 2 dashes Angostura Bitters

- 1 Demerara Sugar Cube or .25 oz. Demerara Simple Syrup

- St. George Absinthe Verte*

Muddle the sugar and bitters with a few drops of water (or add the simple syrup). Add whiskey and ice, and strain and stir into an ice cold absinthe-rinsed rocks glass. Twist lemon peel over surface and discard.

*For an interesting variation, rinse the glass with a peaty scotch like Laphroaig instead of the absinthe.

Vieux Carré

Adapted from Stanley Clisby Arthur, Famous New Orleans Drinks, 1937

The Vieux Carré was invented at the Hotel Monteleone by Walter Bergeron, and the Monteleone's rotating Carousel Bar is still my favorite place to order one. The story is that the ingredients in the Vieux Carré were meant pay tribute to the different ethnic groups of the city. The cognac and Benedictine were an homage to the city's French influence, the vermouth a nod to the Italian heritage, the rye referenced the American influence, and the bitters represent the Caribbean. It picks up plenty of sweetness from the Benedictine without becoming cloying.

- 1 oz. Rittenhouse or Sazerac Rye

- 1 oz. Cognac (I use Leopold or Pierre Ferrand Ambre)

- 1 oz. Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth

- .25 oz. Bénédictine

- 1 dash Angostura Bitters

- 1 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Stir with ice and strain over large ice cube into a chilled rocks glass. Twist and discard lemon.

Friday Cocktail: The Diamondback

For the longest time, I resisted buying a bottle of Green Chartreuse. Although it appears in a ton of classic and contemporary cocktails, I just couldn't justify spending $60 on a bottle of liqueur. I finally picked up a bottle this week, and I have been really impressed. 

Chartruese is an incredibly complex herbal liqueur that has been made by the Carthusian Monks near Grenoble, France since the early 18th century. The recipe is closely guarded, though it purportedly is aged with 130+ different herbs, flowers, and plants. It comes in two versions, Green and Yellow. Green Chartreuse is bolder and stronger at an eye popping 110 proof, while the Yellow Chartreuse is sweeter and milder at only 80 proof. 

This week, I've used my bottle of Green Chartreuse in a bunch of different cocktails, including the gin-based Bijou and the Irish whisky-based Tipperary.  My favorite so far has been the Diamondback. This drink dates back Ted Saucier's 1951 book Bottoms Up and packs a wallop. It uses bonded rye whiskey, bonded apple brandy, and Chartreuse.  Although the original recipe calls for the Yellow version, most resources I've consulted recommend the classic Green Chartreuse. If you are keeping score at home, that means that none of the ingredients in the Diamondback are under 100 proof, making this one to be sipped slowly and contemplated.

The Diamondback

Adapted from Ted Saucier, Bottom's Up, 1951

- 1.5 oz. Rittenhouse bonded rye

- .75 oz. Laird's bonded apple brandy

- .75 oz. Green Chartreuse

Combine over ice in a mixing glass and stire. Strain into a chilled coupe.  No garnish.

Friday Cocktail: The Jack Rose

Flipping through the excellent PDT Cocktail Book, I noticed that a lot of the recipes call for Laird's Bonded Apple Brandy. This product caught my eye because the label reads like a bourbon label in that it bears the "Bottled in Bond" designation.  This means that by law -- the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897 to be precise -- it must be aged in a bonded warehouse for at least four years and bottled at 100 proof. Although there are several bonded whiskies (Rittenhouse, Old Granddad, Col. E.H. Taylor), this is the only brandy I'm aware of bearing the designation. Unlike the French Calvados I've had, the Laird's is drier than expected with only a hint of apples. It could almost pass for whiskey. In any event, the stuff works great in cocktails and is a steal at $25. 

My new bottle of Laird's Bonded called for the most classic apple brandy cocktail, the Jack Rose. This recipe dates back to Boothby's 1908 book, The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them. The 100 proof Laird's is essential here, as the drink is diluted considerably with the grenadine and lemon juice. About the grenadine, if you can't make your own, try to spring for the good stuff. Jack Rudy Cocktail Co. makes a great one (the bottle even has a recipe for the Jack Rose on the side), and I'm sure there are others. The stuff you'll find at the grocery store won't do. For the citrus juice, I go with lemon juice, though some recipes call for lime.

Jack Rose

William Boothby, The World's Drinks and How to Mix Them

Adapted from the PDT Cocktail Book

- 2 oz. Laird's Bonded Apple Brandy

- .75 oz. Lemon Juice

- .75 oz. Jack Rudy Small Batch Grenadine

Combine in a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled coupe. No garnish.

Friday Cocktail: The Sidecar

For me, the quintessential brandy cocktail is the Sidecar. Dating back to the 1920s, there are two schools of thought about the correct proportions for the cognac, Cointreau, and lemon juice. The original drink was made with equal parts of each ingredient (1:1:1), in what is known as the "French School" style. I prefer the "English School" variation, which appears in the Savoy Cocktail Book (1930). This version uses a 2:1:1 ratio -- two parts cognac and 1 part each of the Cointreau and lemon juice. Some recipes call for sugar along the rim of the glass. Please don't do that.

The Sidecar

As modified in the Savoy Cocktail Book, 1930

- 1.5 oz. Cognac (Pierre Ferrand or Léopold Gourmel work well)

- .75 oz. Cointreau* 

- .75 oz. lemon juice

Pour all three ingredients into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake vigorously and strain into a chilled coupe. No garnish.

*For a drier cocktail, use Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Like Al Capone, Templeton Rye's Label May Violate Federal Law

A lot of non-distiller producers (NDPs) source their whiskey, especially rye whiskey, from the old Seagrams distillery located in Lawrenceberg, Indiana called MGPI (it was called LDI until 2011). If you've ever had Bulleit, High West, Redemption, Willett (the younger 3-4 year old stuff), Smooth Ambler, Riverboat, or Templeton ryes, you were drinking MGPI-distilled whiskey. There are plenty of others. MGPI rye is distilled from a very high rye (95%) mashbill and can be quite good. High West, who was early to the MGPI rye party, has released several great whiskies using this rye.

A lot of the NDPs peddling MGPI whiskey have created fanciful stories that they use to market their products. These stories generally bear no relationship to reality. Case in point: Templeton Rye. Templeton's marketing tries to convince people that its rye is a recreation of the prohibition era recipe made in Templeton, Iowa and which Al Capone called "The Good Stuff." Templeton's website spins a tale of Templeton founder Scott Bush convincing a prohibition era bootleg distiller from Templeton, Iowa to give him the 80 year old recipe (only after his Uncle Gus vouched for him), which is what is now sold as Templeton Rye. 

This story is, of course, not true. Templeton Rye is not made with some long lost Iowa prohibition era recipe. It is made with the same recipe that all MGPI rye is made with: 95% rye, 5% barley. Templeton just buys it, ages it, and bottles it.

This type of marketing is troubling. Fortunately, there is supposed to be a sure fire way to determine whether a whiskey is MGPI make. Federal law requires that whiskey list the State of distillation on the label. A regulation of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), a division of the U.S. Department of Treasury, requires that "the State of distillation shall be shown on the label of any whisky produced in the United States if the whisky is not distilled in the State given in the address on the brand label." 17 C.F.R. § 5.36(d). This requirement is particularly effective in identifying MGPI whiskey, since there aren't a ton of distilleries in Indiana like there are in Kentucky. The problem is that Templeton Rye does not disclose Indiana as the State of distillation on its bottle.

Although this is a pretty clear violation of the TTB regulations, whiskey enthusiasts have become accustomed the the TTB refusing to enforce its own laws. That might be changing, however. Whiskey-guru Chuck Cowdery penned this post on Tuesday that the TTB may be looking to enforce the State of distillation requirements. Based upon that post, I questioned on Twitter whether Templeton would finally have to disclose on its label where #TheGoodStuff comes from.

Rather than ignoring me, Templeton defended their practice with the following curious tweets.

@ATLEpicurean @FredMinnick We built our distillery in Templeton in 2005. We ferment & distill a variety of spirits and age & bottle TR.
— Templeton Rye (@TempletonRye) May 14, 2014

@ATLEpicurean @FredMinnick It say "Templeton Rye Spirits, LLC. Templeton, IA." That is because all bottling is finished in Templeton, IA.
— Templeton Rye (@TempletonRye) May 14, 2014

So, basically, Templeton's position is that it need not list the State of distillation because (1) it has a distillery in Iowa that distills and ferments alcohol that is not Templeton Rye; and (2) Templeton Rye is aged and bottled in Iowa. These explanations, of course, are specious and not supported by the TTB regs. If the TTB is indeed starting to enforce Section 5.36(d), I would expect Templeton Rye labels to start disclosing that the whiskey comes from Indiana.

Some may find this all to be a little too technical to get worked up about. "If the whiskey is good, who cares where it is distilled," you might say. That may be true, and indeed Templeton is decent, if overpriced, low proof whiskey (though that is a bit of an oxymoron to most whiskey geeks). The larger issue here is that whiskey companies apparently feel that they can intentionally violate TTB regulations with no fear of reprisal. If that type of thing can go on, what is to stop distillers from ignoring other more significant legal requirements like the legal requirements to call whiskey bourbon or rye?

Also, in today's ultra-competitive whiskey market, consumers have a right to know whether they are buying just another MGPI rye instead of unique Iowa-distilled whiskey. And although the Templeton website now acknowledges that the company partnered with an unnamed Indiana distillery to make Templeton Rye, the label does not disclose this fact for one simple reason. A large number of consumers are making purchasing decisions while standing at the store looking at whiskey labels, and Templeton would prefer that people think they are buying Al Capone's favorite whiskey, not sourced whiskey from a bulk producer. And that, after all, is the reason that the TTB labeling regulations exist.

Friday Cocktail: Bufala Negra

Today's cocktail comes to us from Atlanta's own Jerry Slater of H. Harper Station. The Bufala Negra is light and refreshing drink thanks to the addition of ginger beer but picks up a lot of depth from the muddled basil and balsamic syrup. I used real-deal 12 year old balsamic I brought back from Italy, which is totally unnecessary for this drink but worked spectacularly. 

Bufala Negra

Jerry Slater, H. Harper Station, Atlanta

- 1.5 oz. bourbon (I used Old Grand Dad 114)

- 4 fresh basil leaves

- 1 brown sugar cube

- 0.5 oz. balsamic syrup*

- 2 oz. ginger beer

Muddle the balsamic syrup, basil, and sugar cube in a mixing tin. Add bourbon and ice and shake vigorously. Strain over fresh ice cubes into an Old Fashioned glass. Top with ginger beer and garnish with basil leaf.

*For the balsamic syrup, combine equal parts balsamic vinegar and 1:1 simple syrup and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and let cool completely.