Vintage Vesper
Contributed by on Oct 20, 2014
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Do you know what day it is?? Well, after a couple of these Vintage Vesper’s you probably wouldn’t nor would you necessarily care but just to let you know it’s … Mixology Monday! Yup, that day of the month when cocktail obsessed imbibers gather online for a virtual cocktail party… and you’re invited!
This month, our host Joel from Southern Ash came up with a doozy of a theme -” perfect symmetry “! Joel describes it as …“a perfect drink splits the liquor or liqueur evenly between two related ingredients. The most common “perfect” drink is a perfect Manhattan where the vermouth is split between sweet and dry to create an altogether different experience… why make a choice when you can have it all?”
The timing of this couldn’t have been better. Lately I’ve been experimenting with this concept and so there was no question what cocktail I was going to make – a “Vintage Vesper”. A what?? Ok, well you know there’s a bit of story here so… stir up one of these Vintage Vesper’s and settle in.
Alrighty then, a couple of weeks ago I was in Austin and hit up a couple of terrific cocktail bars – for “research purposes only ” you understand. Yes, it’s a tough job but somebody has to do it, right? And it was worth every minute because I had some truly outstanding cocktails. One cocktail though that really stuck in my brain was this barrel aged Vesper I had at Clive’s. Yeah, a Vesper… barrel aged.
Uh huh.
But before you toss this Vesper back in my face, hear me out. While Bond might have had a problem with Clive’s take on this gin, vodka and kina lillet classic, I had no such problem. In fact I thought it was brilliant. Like all barrel aged cocktails, the time spent on oak mellowed and rounded out some of the flavors – and in the case of the Vesper, it tamed the alcohol bite and brought out some lovely honey and vanilla notes – making it a far more “lady – like” cocktail IMHO.
After the first taste, I knew I wanted to make this cocktail at home. One problem though. I didn’t have a barrel and didn’t want to wait the few weeks months it would take to get one, season it and age a Vesper – patience is not my strong suit! So, I decided to try and “MacGyver” it by subbing out some of the gin with Ransom Old Tom Gin – thinking that some of that “vintage” barrel aged goodness might just do the trick.
And it worked far better than I expected. This “Vintage Vesper” isn’t quite as smooth as the barrel aged version but the Ransom Old Tom delivers the vanilla and honey notes I was looking for. And while Bond might not approve, I think Vesper would.
- 1 oz. Fords Gin
- 1 oz. Ransom Old Tom Gin
- ¾ oz. Aylesbury Duck Vodka
- ½ oz. Cocchi Americano
- Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
