fail-safe

3/4 oz Perry's Tot Navy Strength Gin (Hayman's Navy Yard)
3/4 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin (Averell Damson Gin)
1/2 oz Aperol
1/2 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
2 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a Double Old Fashioned glass with a large cube.

When looking for a nightcap two Monday's ago, I figured that I ought to welcome Negroni week with something fitting to the theme. Therefore, my search ended in the Negroni variation section of the Death & Co. Cocktail Book with Scott Teague's 2013 creation, the Fail-Safe. Just like the Chester Rapkin and the Red Sea, this Negroni riff included sloe gin to take the place of the vermouth and to round out the bitter notes.
Here, the Fail-Safe broadcasted orange, dark berry, and pine aromas. Next, the orange and dark berry notes continued on into the sip, and the swallow began with gin and a grape-like bitterness and finished with Angostura Bitters' spice.