justified shooting

1 1/2 oz Balvenie 14 Year Caribbean Cask Scotch
1 oz Amaro Nonino
1/2 oz Cynar
2 dash Bittermens Mole Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass.

As a followup drink to the Prison Nickname at Local 149, I asked bartender John Mayer for the Justified Shooting. In the Magic Wand Malfunction writeup, I mentioned that John's OnTheBar bio reads, "If the drink is named after Texas, firearms, or sex toys, there's a good chance I created it." True to this, John named the drink after Elmore Leonard's television series Justified. While the show takes places in Kentucky and not Texas, it is about guns and the US Marshal that will find a reason to use them and declare it justified. John explained that he was influenced recipe-wise by Ted Kilpatrick's Comanche Club where two drinks balanced on their own were merged. The Amaro Nonino and Scotch aspect came from his Des Esseintes, and the Cynar and mole bitters came from a default pairing of his such as in the Libretto. Moreover, after seeing the combination of whiskey, Amaro Nonino, and Cynar, I asked John if he was influenced by his old barmate Paul Manzelli's Elizabetta, and he replied that he did use Paul's favored 3:2:1 proportions.
The Justified Shooting began with a smokey Scotch aroma with a handful of darker notes that was perhaps symbolic of a recently fired gun. On the tongue, the caramel and malt flavors on the sip led into herbal and smoke notes at the beginning of the swallow that finished with Cynar and chocolate at the end.