prieure de sion

40 mL Armagnac (2 oz Larressingle VSOP)
15 mL St. Germain (3/4 oz)
5 mL Suze (1/4 oz Salers)
8 dash Peychaud's Bitters (12 dash)

Stir with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon twist. Note that the drink was scaled up from 2 oz (using the original metric measurements) to 3 oz.

Two Saturdays ago for the cocktail hour, I decided upon the Prieuré de Sion from Gary Regan's 101 Best New Cocktails of 2012. The recipe was crafted by Isak Cornelis von Werther of the Nobis Hotel's Gold Bar in Stockholm, Sweden. Isak was inspired by the DaVinci Code, and the drink name translates to "priority of Zion."
The lemon twist brightened up the Peychaud's Bitters aroma hovering over the Prieuré de Sion. The sip was rather fruity from the Armagnac pairing with the St. Germain. The Armagnac continued into the swallow where it was followed by the St. Germain's floral and Saler's gentian notes. Finally, the Peychaud's dominated the finish; surprisingly, the drink was not as bitter as I first feared from the strong hand with the Peychaud's combining with the gentian liqueur. Indeed, the bitters and St. Germain did battle in the glass and the score ended up tied with a decent balance in the end.