baltasar & blimunda

2 oz Beefeater Gin
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz Tawny Port (Taylor Fladgate Ruby)

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail coupe. Garnish with a flamed orange twist (omitted flame).

After my Sunday night shift, I opted for the Death & Co. Cocktail Book as the source of my evening's nightcap. There in the Negroni variation section was Phil Ward's Baltasar and Blimunda. The name is a reference to a Nobel Prize-winning book of that name by Portuguese author José Saramago, and the tie in is that Phil included Portuguese fortified wine in the mix. Similar to how Phil split the vermouth element in the Cornwall Negroni, here he utilized Punt e Mes paired with port to balance the gin and Campari.
The Baltasar and Blimunda's twist garnish brought fresh orange oil notes over the Campari's bitter orange ones. Next, the port with assistance from the Punt e Mes shared a rich grape on the sip, and the swallow gave forth gin botanicals and Punt e Mes bitterness with a grapefruit-y finish from the Campari.