Grapefruit Aperitif Cocktails with Wine

Two great and geographically related fortified wines combined with fresh pink grapefruit and bitters for light cocktails to begin a summer dinner. The first one features madeira and allspice notes from Jerry Thomas’ decanter bitters; the second is made with white port and lavender bitters. I just got the Bar Keep Lavender Bitters and really like them.



Ribeiro

• 2 oz madeira (medium-rich)
• 2 oz pink grapefruit juice
• 1 dash Jerry Thomas’ Own Decanter Bitters (Bitter Truth)

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Grapefruit twist.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE



Vicente

• 2 oz white port
• 2 oz pink grapefruit juice
• 2 dashes lavender bitters (Bar Keep)

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Grapefruit twist.
ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

One grapefruit does two drinks. Strain the pulp. It seems like I ought to say that fresh juice is essential here, but if you’re cooking the sort of dinner these things would go in front of, you probably knew that anyway.

Speak Low

I went to a big party in December, a potluck at a house I’d never been to before and didn’t know the crowd. But I figured nothing succeeds like liquor so I made up a batch of a room temp cocktail I’d spotted on Cocktail Virgin Slut, Creole Lady. It features Madeira, my favorite wine of that sort. As it happened, my hosts had invited someone else who felt the same way more than somewhat, and she was my best customer. What’s more, she started ordering Creole Lady all over town. Must’ve been the recipe and the Madeira I’d made it with, a Blandy’s 5-year Malmsey. I’ve used the same for this original cocktail as a foil for some apple brandy and a trace of smoky scotch—my favorite personal invention in a while. Sending this one out to the fellow party guest who likes Madeira.



Speak Low

• 2 oz Laird’s straight apple brandy
• 1 oz Madeira
• 1/2 oz lemon juice
• 1/8 oz or scant tsp Ardbeg Single Malt
• 1 dash Jerry Thomas’ Own Decanter Bitters
• tiny pinch sea salt

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

November Weather

Dreamers with empty hands
May sigh for exotic lands
It’s autumn in New York
It’s good to live it again

—Autumn In New York, Vernon Duke

Lately I’m longing for a Brooklyn visit, but I’ll have to be content to email and phone my peeps back there. In honor of the Big Apple, I’m posting something with my new Bar Keep Baked Apple Bitters, which add a light, woodsy spice note to whiskey and rum cocktails. (I tried them in tequila too but they were too subtle and got lost.) This one’s with Black Label, much enjoyed by my friends back in Brooklyn.



November Weather

• 2 oz blended scotch (Johnnie Walker Black Label)
• 3/4 oz madeira
• 4 dashes Bar Keep Baked Apple Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE

I like the way the acidity of the madeira combines with the damp smoke of the peat like a chill you can smell outside the house but don’t feel cuz you’re inside and warm. The apple bitters mostly come through on the nose and brighten the madeira a little.

George Plantagenet Cocktail

Have some madeira, m’dear
You really have nothing to fear
I’m not trying to tempt you, that wouldn’t be right
You shouldn’t drink spirits at this time of night

—Madeira M’ Dear, Michael Flanders and Donald Swann

This first in a wine cocktail series is based on Madeira, of which I am fond more than somewhat. For the Madeira in this, I used a 5-year Malmsey, a very tasty wine, so I’ve called this drink after George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence, who was supposed to have been drowned in a butt of Malmsey, poor devil. Whatever really happened, it’s still a hell of a way to go. Everybody raise a glass to old George.



George Plantagenet Cocktail

• 2 oz Madeira
• 1 oz gold Barbados rum
• 1/2 oz lemon juice

Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
SOURCE: ROWEN, FOGGED IN LOUNGE