frank's cocktail

1 1/2 oz Cognac (Camus VS)
1 1/2 oz White Port (Ramos Pinto)
1 tsp Grenadine or Maraschino (1/4 oz Luxardo Maraschino)
3 dash Orange Bitters (Regan's)

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with a lemon twist.

In David Wondrich's 2016: A Year in Drinks article on the DailyBeast, he listed a simple but elegant Cognac cocktail he made at home in his list of memorable drinks that he had around the world. The recipe was the Frank's Cocktail crafted by Frank Newman who was tending bar in Paris where he published a cocktail book called the American Bar in French. The unusual ingredient here is the white port that comes across as soft, sweet, and soothing all without masking the main spirit's flavor, and it is best known for being the flavor complement in the Clubland. In Newman's 1900 edition, the drink appeared with a dash of grenadine, but the Maraschino option in his 1904 edition was the one that called out to me two Tuesdays ago.
The Frank's Cocktail greeted the senses with lemon oil, Cognac aromas, and a hint of nutty cherry on the nose. Next, a very smooth and clean white grape flavor filled the sip, and the swallow offered Cognac and nutty Maraschino notes smoothed out by the white port.

wit haven

1 oz Barrel-aged Bols Genever
1 oz Kopke White Port
1/2 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Agave Nectar
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Two Sundays ago, Andrea and I visited Island Creek Oyster Bar. For a drink, I asked bartender Paul for the Wit Haven. The Wit Haven utilized the bottling of the Genever barrel that Jackson Cannon selected at the Bols distillery. Apparently, this is the first single-barrel bottling that Bols has done with the Genever, and the wealth is spread between the three bars that Jackson Cannon supervises.
The twist's lemon oil greeted the senses and prepared the mouth for a sweet lemon sip that contained soft white port flavors; as the drink warmed up a bit, the Genever's malt began to play a role in the sip. Much of the Genever flavors filled the swallow though that finished with a lemon note.

1638

1 oz Kopke White Port
1 oz Pimm's No. 1
3/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse
2 dash Orange Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.

After a brief foray at Eastern Standard, we made our way over to Island Creek Oyster Bar for a nightcap. There, I requested the 1638 from bartender Vikram Hegde for I am always curious as to what mixologists can do with white port. Moreover, the combination of white port with Pimm's and Yellow Chartreuse seemed light and intriguing. I assume that the drink's name relates to the year Kopke, the first and oldest port producer, was founded.
The lemon twist provided much of the 1638's aroma before the oils dissipated and the Pimm's began to shine through. The Pimm's fruit notes came across in the sip along with a light grape flavor. However, most of the white port notes appeared at the beginning of the swallow with Yellow Chartreuse's spice and orange bitters rounding out the drink. As it warmed up, I found the 1638 became more cohesive of a cocktail with a nice savory wine feel to it.

clubland

1/2 White Port (1 1/2 oz Ramos Pinto)
1/2 Vodka (1 1/2 oz Bak's Bison Grass)
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Last Tuesday, the Liquor Fairy visited and dropped off a sample bottle of Bak's Bison Grass Vodka. When we tasted it straight, Andrea got a sweet grassy flavor and I got notes that reminded me of cinnamon and tonka bean. While we are not big vodka fans, this stuff was actually interesting given the herbal and spice notes; on the other hand, vodka fans should not fear for these flavors are not as potent or as challenging as gins' or aquavits' botanicals are. Andrea was game to give it a try in a drink and we both knew what recipe was coming. The Clubland from the 1937 Café Royal Cocktail Book has been a recipe that we have been meaning to try, but we always deferred to another recipe idea instead. While the name is evocative of the discos of Manhattan in the 1980s or the more historically accurate explanation of the London area containing a large number of gentlemen's clubs, the drink was most likely named after the Clubland White Port that the original recipe calls for (along with Wolfschmidt as the vodka brand). With the bison grass-flavored (it is most likely a distillation product to remove the verboten coumarin molecules present in the traditionally infused spirit) vodka, there was enough momentum not to defer making this recipe any longer.
The Clubland smelled of the white port's grape and the Angostura's spice. Flavorwise, I was quite impressed at how well the Angostura Bitters complemented the bison grass vodka! The combination of the two proffered cinnamon on the sip with a bit of apple pie spices on the swallow. Andrea commented that this drink was not as insipid as she first feared; moreover, while it was not exceptionally dynamic of a drink, it was more dynamic than a Vodka Martini. I replied that I could definitely see why Jeff Morgenthaler put the Clubland as the vodka drink on his menu at Clyde Common in Portland, Oregon.

broken spur cocktail no. 1

1 oz White Port (Ramos Pinto)
1 oz Gin (Aviation)
1 dash Anisette (1 barspoon Herbsaint)
1 Egg Yolk

Shake one round without ice and once with. Strain into a cocktail glass.
On Monday night, I started browsing our cocktail books for recipes that use white port as we had bought a bottle this past weekend. One that appealed to me was the first Broken Spur in Trader Vic's Bartender's Guide. The book also contained a Broken Spur #2 which had the gin reduced to a quarter ounce and with the addition of a quarter ounce of sweet vermouth. The Broken Spur we made had a soft anise nose. The drink was not overwhelmingly anise but it was one of the main tastes besides the richness from the port and egg yolk. The Broken Spur's flavor made Andrea think of a fennel crème brûlée. Overall, it was a decent drink although I felt that it might be improved with a sprinkling of grated cinnamon or nutmeg as a garnish.

blonde on blonde

3/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse
3/4 oz Pisco
3/4 oz Lemon Juice
3/4 oz White Port
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

Andrea and I went to Rendezvous Saturday night after getting Tibetan food in Central Square. Scott Holliday was at the bar and busier than we have ever seen him. We usually go in during the week or late on the weekend, but this was during the restaurant's peak. I asked if he had been working on anything new, and he seemed a bit overwhelmed by the work flow at that moment and could not think of anything, so I went with a Half Sinner Half Saint. After I finished that drink, this stunning number appeared in front of me with an apology that things were too frantic for him to think of his latest experiments.

The drink, which I am guessing that he named after a Bob Dylan song, highlights the white to yellow end of the spectrum of bar reagents. The Chartreuse provided a pleasing level of complexity in addition to some necessary sweetness to balance the lemon juice. The port added some body and the pisco some punch to the drink. Hopefully this cocktail makes it on to the menu like the Nehru did. The Nehru was a drink he let us taste as he was working out the recipe, and last night indicated how much of a hit it has become as he made more than a dozen of them last night while we were there.

diablo (variant)

2 oz Rye
1/2 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz White Port
2 dashes Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

On Tuesday, Andrea and I went down to Rendezvous for dinner and to meet up with Tim and Jess (the creator of this blog) for drinks. I started with a Nehru with dinner and I asked the bartender, Scott Holliday, what he had been experimenting with lately. He mixed me this Diablo variant. The only comment was that he swapped the rum and dry vermouth for rye and white port, so the rest of the recipe above as well as the proportions are from barnonedrinks.com (it took a while to find the rum-based Diablo since there are several distinct cocktails with the same name). I have no clue if he used Cointreau or even has it at the bar so that and the rest is guesstimation. His substitution was intriguing as he swapped the spicy and smooth ingredients around. A spicy rye and a smooth white port instead of a smooth rum and a spicy vermouth. I think that the only other time I had a mixed drink with white port was in a white sangria. Standard ports used to be standards in mixed drinks including back in the time of Jerry Thomas; it is a pity that they and sherries are used less frequently by today's bartenders.