chancellor

2 oz Single Malt Scotch (1 3/4 oz Pig's Nose Blended + 1/4 oz Laphroaig Single Malt)
1/2 oz Ruby Port (Sandeman Tawny)
1/2 oz Dry Vermouth (La Quintinye)
1 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a coupe glass.

After I got home from Saloon, I was in the mood for a nightcap, so I decided to make the Chancellor that I have made reference to with the Skyfall the week before as well as older drinks such as the Rue Morgue. The drink allegedly first appeared in the 1956 Esquire Drink Book as a Perfect Rob Roy of sorts with ruby port taking the place of the sweet vermouth; the recipe was absent in my 1949 Esquire Drink Book but was definitely in my 1999 edition edited by David Wondrich. The Esquire recipe is as follows:

Chancellor (1956)
• 2 oz Blended Scotch
• 1 oz Ruby Port
• 1/2 oz Dry Vermouth
• 2 dash Orange Bitters
Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

The recipe that I ended up going with was adapted by Joseph Schwartz at Manhattan's Little Branch and published in the 2008 edition of Food & Wine: Cocktails book. Schwartz dropped the port in half and made up for the lost body by calling for a fuller Scotch; he also switched the bitters from orange to Peychaud's which along with the decreased amount of sweet fortified wine would help to send the recipe into a drier realm. In the glass, the Chancellor offered grape and peaty smoke to the nose, and this led into a malt and grape sip. Next, the swallow began with the smoky whisky being mellowed by the port and ended with hints of anise-driven spice.