rye montana

2 oz Rittenhouse Rye
1 oz Warres Ruby Port
1/2 oz Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth

Stir with ice and pour into a rocks glass pre-rubbed with orange and lemon twists.

Last Thursday, Andrea and I went to Rendezvous to pay Mr. Holliday a visit after getting Tibet food at Rangzen. For my first drink, I asked Scott for a drink with ruby port, and he wanted to make me a rye whiskey variant of the otherwise brandy-based Montana which I have made at home and had at Drink.

The large orange and lemon rind pieces that Scott twisted and coated the inside of the rocks glass certainly paid off in the nose of this drink which was indeed rich in citrus oil notes. These notes paired up with the bitter orange peel hints in the Noilly Prat vermouth rather well. Overall, the drink was a more full-bodied but less spicy Manhattan. Well, the Rittenhouse rye was definitely spicy in a fiery sort of way, but the drink was less spicy in a botanical way due to the absence of bitters and lower vermouth ratio than I use in my Manhattans. The rye definitely took the Montana in an unique direction from both the Manhattan and the all grape-based and more mellow original Montana.