close enough for jazz

2 oz Gin (Bombay Dry)
3/4 oz Fino or Manzanilla Sherry (Tio Pepe Fino)
1/4 oz Honey Syrup 1:1

Stir with ice, strain into a coupe rinsed with absinthe (Kübler), and garnish with a lemon twist.

Two Mondays ago, I was writing up the Close But No Cigar post, and I was inspired by the combination of Manzanilla sherry and honey in that Manhattan riff. I wondered how it would do in a Martini riff; I had used a 3:1 dry vermouth to syrup ratio in the As Perfect as a Limerick at Nahita, and I knew that it would come across like blanc vermouth. To round off the combination, I added an absinthe rinse instead of the inspiration's Peychaud's Bitters in the mix and the Scotch rinse, and in keeping close to the original in name, I dubbed this one Close Enough for Jazz.Close Enough for Jazz introduced the senses with lemon, anise, and juniper's pine aromas. Next, an off-dry white wine with hints of honey on the sip flowed into gin, honey, savory, and anise flavors on the swallow.