paper plane

3/4 oz Amaro Nonino
3/4 oz Eagle Rare 10 Year Bourbon
3/4 oz Aperol
3/4 oz Lemon Juice

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

On the way home from Russell House Tavern, I decided to stop into Bergamot for a nightcap. When I asked bartender Paul Manzelli what he had been making lately that he was excited about, he mentioned the Paper (Air)Plane that he found in Food & Wine: Cocktails 2009. The drink was created by New York City bartender Sam Ross and was very similar to Lance Mayhew's Twelve Gauge and Kevin Martin's Espirit d'Escalier that I had tried previously. Since I believe that the Paper Plane was created before the other two, I decided it was time to give it a try. I teased Paul that he was only excited by the recipe for it used Amaro Nonino; ounce by ounce, he would be getting closer to his crush of Elisabetta of the Nonino clan.
The Paper Plane began with a lemon oil aroma, and the lemon continued on in the sip where it played with Aperol's fruit notes and the whiskey's malty ones; indeed, I found it interesting how the lemon and Aperol combined to produce an almost grapefruit note. The citrus also appeared on the swallow where it influenced the Amaro Nonino's flavor. Moreover, as the drink warmed up, the Bourbon notes on the swallow became greater. The Paper Plane's lemon juice provided a crisper drink than I recall the Espirit d'Escalier; but the latter's pink grapefruit proffered a more rounded, complex but sweeter flavor.