last cold night before spring

1 oz St. George's Bourbon (Wild Turkey 81)
3/4 oz Averna
3/4 oz Lustau Amontillado Sherry
3/4 oz Water
1-2 dash Angostura Bitters

Build in a wine glass and stir without ice. This is a room temperature cocktail.

Two Saturdays ago, I decided to make a recipe that I had spotted on the ShakeStir website. The drink was created by Ran Duan of the Baldwin Bar at the Sichuan Garden II in Woburn, and what caught my eye was not that it had won the monthly Boston-area flash competition, but that it was a room temperature cocktail with sherry and amaro. The drink appears on the Baldwin Bar's current list, and I would not be surprised if it is made there as an equal parts recipe; the contest guidelines required that one of the sponsor's ingredients had to be at least an ounce, and a 3 1/4 oz cocktail recipe seems a bit odd here.
Once built, the Last Cold Night Before Spring shared a grape and caramel aroma accented with spice notes. A grape, caramel, and malt sip gave way to a Bourbon and nutty sherry swallow and an Angostura spice finish. Overall, it was less Manhattan-like than I expected for the Bourbon takes a back seat at this dilution and temperature. Perhaps a more flavorful or overproof whiskey than the one I used would help, although the St. George Breaking & Entering Bourbon in the recipe is a similar 86 proof.