bonatti & the jets

1 1/2 oz Nardini Aquavite Bassano Riserva Aged Grappa
1/2 oz Benedictine
1/2 oz Cardamaro
1/2 oz Cocchi Sweet Vermouth
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Twist a grapefruit peel over the top.

After the Blue Room, I crossed Cambridge to visit Brick & Mortar before meeting up with Andrea for dinner. There, Matthew Schrage and Phil MacLeod holding down the fort. For a libation, I asked Matt for the Bonatti & Jets, a new edition to their menu. He then explained (after singing the drink name à la Elton John) that the recipe was created by fellow bartender Cory Buono. Cory named it after Walter Bonatti, a famous Italian mountaineer who scaled K2, for he was inspired by the Italian Alpine qualities of many of the ingredients in the drink. The aged grappa was one that I fell in love with after trying Misty Kalkofen's Bullet for Fredo on one of Brick & Mortar's early menus.
At first the Bonatti & the Jets began with a grapefruit aroma, but as the citrus oils diminished, it became more chocolate-herbal on the nose; when I spoke to Schrage about it, he commented that he specifically got a chocolate-basil note. The sip was grape from the sweet vermouth and Cardamaro, and the swallow was chocolatey, bitter, and herbal. I surmise that the chocolate notes stem from the Benedictine and grappa especially given my tasting notes from the Bullet for Fredo.