When you have a drink made from great ingredients at a bar, you’ve finished it before the ingredients had a chance to work with each other. If you make a recipe and put it in French oak barrels or (dry martini) a stainless steel tank for 6 months, you get greatly increased richness, complexity, balance. We say pretty confidently that these are some of the best drinks you’ll ever have
Aged Cocktails
ANSLEY COALE’S ‘A Christmas Spirit’ Brandy & Cranberry Liqueur (2023):
Assembled in 2015 as a component of an aged cocktail, using a 4-year-old alambic brandy with Steve McCarthy's craft cranberry liqueur. The blend remained in barrel for 7 more years. 9 gallons of the original liqueur, still in barrel, were used to freshen the 2015 blend. Richly fruity cranberry against a backdrop of superb aged brandy, beautifully integrated. Makes a great gift, with a 19th-century engraving of jolly old Saint Nick on the label. Limit 2 bottles per customer.
DEVIN’S WHISKEY MANHATTAN
DEVIN’s WHISKEY MANHATTAN:
Devin’s Whiskey and Andy Quady’s Vya Sweet Vermouth that has been 8 years in oak. The Manhattan itself is blended for a month. Tasty whiskey distilled from fresh corn with the rich depth of aged sweet vermouth is cocktail perfection. There’s not much of it because we didn’t have a lot of Devin’s to spare. Don’t miss this.
Fluid Dynamics
FLUID DYNAMICS – Dry Martini:
Russell Henry London Dry gin and a touch of Quady Whisper Dry vermouth aged 6 weeks in a type 306 stainless steel vat. Dry is the word: Cain needed so little vermouth that it was easiest just to buy a few bottles locally and pour them in. Ansley Coale grew up on Beefeater dry martinis on the East Coast and calls this “6 times as good" 200ml is two 3oz. drinks.
