mezcalero

1 oz Del Maguey Mezcal Vida (Fidencio)
1 oz Aperol
1 oz Blanc Vermouth (Dolin)

Stir with ice, strain into an old fashioned glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with a grapefruit twist.
After I finished reading Finding Mezcal by Del Maguey's Ron Cooper and spirits author Chantal Martineau, I decided to make one of the book's forty recipes that night. In tribute to recently departed bartender John Lermayer of Miami's Sweet Liberty, I selected his mezcal Negroni of sorts called the Mezcalero. Once prepared, the Mezcalero greeted the nose with grapefruit oil from the twist and orange aromas from the Aperol that both brighted the mezcal's smoke. Next, orange and white grape on the sip led into smoky mezcal and bitter orange on the swallow.