Every decade or so the stately classic cocktail works its way back into vogue. For a few years the young and the consciously cool will flaunt their Old Fashioneds, Negronis, Manhattans and other favorites of yore. Then heads will turn to something different — tedious designer cocktails, perhaps.
Most of the time, classics are simply buried under a tide of simplified drinks: gin and tonics, “martinis” consisting of vodka with a garnish, colorful Cosmopolitans. Yet the old school cocktail always returns.
There are two points to know about the classics. First, they require some precision. The recipes seek balance and intensity, taking advantage of some aspect of each ingredient.
“You actually have to measure,” Bill Chapman, bartender at The Saw Shop in Kelseyville explained. “You’re not doing anyone a favor with a free pour.”
Second, the results can be gorgeous.
The the Perfect Manhattan at The Saw Shop, a combination of Bulleit Rye, both sweet and dry Vya vermouth and blood orange bitters, dressed with a string of cherries pitted in house and soaked in bourbon.
For a brief moment the cocktail seems demure, showing off the softer side of the whiskey. But rye is a purposeful thing and very quickly the rounded savor of tobacco, spice, toasted zest, fennel and all things Bulleit come through. Riding alongside, however, is a more refined sweetness — not the dimwitted belt of refined sugar, but a natural, concentrated flavor. Within this, layers of burnished citrus, weathered oak and raspy pomace pick up on complexities in the rye.
Ever element has its say. The cocktail is potent yet intricate and cool.
“I have to give a lot of credit to the vermouth,” Chapman said.
The Vya sweet vermouth calls to mind a winter evening in a kitchen, with raisins and caramelized sugars sweetening the more rustic notes of wood and pounded fruit. Meanwhile the dry version is more straightforward, with parched white grapes and the leavings of the press.
Chapman also credits the choice of whiskey. Rye is rougher and not as sweet as the typical bourbon. And some who study spirits — what a great job — believe the very first Manhattans used American rye, as there was plenty of it about in the decades before prohibition killed off smaller distilleries.
The oldest existing recipe for the cocktail dates from the 1880s. A New York bartender named Black — his given name lost to time — was likely the first to shake up the concoction, though a doubtful tale about the Manhattan Club and a party for Winston Churchill’s mother in the 1870s also makes the rounds.
But you know what? The origin of the Manhattan matters much less than the one in front of you, especially if that one is perfect.
Dave Faries can be reached at 900-2016
