smoke, vine, & seed

1 1/2 oz Sandeman Tawny Port
1/2 oz Busnel Calvados
5 drop Peach Bitters

Stir without ice and pour into a small snifter glass rinsed with Lagavulin 16 Year Scotch. Garnish with a spritz of Lagavulin. Note: this is a room-temperature cocktail.

After our meal at Sichuan Garden 2, Ran Duan made us a pair of room-temperature after dinner drinks. The one he made for me, the Smoke, Vine, & Seed, was created by Ran's friend Joe Hines, a bartender in Denver when he was at the Green Russell; Joe won the cocktail contest at this past summer's Colorado Wine Cocktail Celebration with this recipe. The drink began with smoke aroma at first, and as that subsided, the bouquet was more grape. The grape in the rich sip continued into the swallow where it paired with the apple and peach notes.
The room-temperature number than he made for Andrea was the Bath Salt that was different than the one of a similar name at Trina's Starlite Lounge. This one began with a hazelnut nose that led into a grape and malt sip. On the swallow, the nut and fig flavors worked rather well with the Bourbon.

Bath Salt
• 1 1/2 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth
• 3/4 oz Bourbon
• 1/4 oz Frangelico
• 5 drop Salt Tincture
• 2 dash Brooklyn Hemispherical Bitters Black Mission Fig Bitters
Build without ice in a small snifter glass and stir. Note: this is a room-temperature cocktail.