improved dunlop

2 oz Croft Reserve Tawny Port
1 oz Clement 6 Year Rhum Agricole
1/4 bsp Cane Syrup
1 dash Mole Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a double old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with a grapefruit twist.

Two Mondays ago, I attended a seminar on port wine at the Hawthorne given by Chris Forbes, a Fladgate Export Manager, and Andy Seymour of Liquid Productions. Throughout the seminar, we tasted various ports as well as a handful of port cocktails crafted by Liquid Production's Lulu Martinez. One of my favorites of the collection was a simple modification of the Dunlop that appeared in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book. The Savoy's Dunlop was a 2:1 rum to sherry cocktail embittered by Angostura akin to Trader Vic's Arawak. Here, the fortified wine was swapped to tawny port, the rum to wine proportions were inversed, and the bitters were changed to chocolate molé. Andy started his talk by describing how underdog spirits can be introduced to people using cocktails as a bridge, and this strategy worked wonders for gin, mezcal, and sherry. So here, a sherry drink was elegantly modified into a port one.
The Improved Dunlop greeted the senses with bright grapefruit oils that countered darker notes from the port on the nose. Next, the sip showcased a crisp grape note, and the swallow had grassy rhum meeting earthy grape and dried fruit notes with a chocolate and acid-rich finish.