Of Grapes and Grains: Quady Winery & High West at Tales of the Cocktail
Six cocktails and six bartenders mixed and batched their way to delicious drinks highlighting the magic of whiskey and wine at the Quady Winery & High West Brand Education Room: Of Grapes and Grains, at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, Louisiana, last week.
Fortified wines like vermouth, sherry, and port in combination with whiskey created many of the first mixed drinks and set America on course for a love affair with cocktails in the pre-prohibition era. Bold and spicy whiskey calls for companions that are robust and full-bodied by nature. Quady fortified wines are just that–high in viscosity and intense in the aromas and the characters of the grapes from which they are made.
For this event, High West Distillery bartenders Holly Booth and Steve Walton sampled though the full portfolio of Quady fortified wines and created complex and imaginative drinks that evoked sensory memories of good times past and new adventures awaiting! Quady Winery’s Dana Fares created an original cocktail for the occasion, and adapted several classic cocktails at the end of this post to demonstrate the potential peaks and valley of flavor yet to be explored in the land of whiskey and wine.
Here are the recipes, and photos of these lovely drinks:
Bittercreek
1 1/2 oz High West American Prairie Bourbon
1 oz Quady Elysium
3/4 oz Campari
1/2 oz Quady Batch 88 Starboard
orange twist garnish
Combine ingredients in a mixing glass. Stir. Serve up in a coupe glass.
Recipe created by Holly Booth and Steve Walton.
Little Britches
2 oz High West Rendezvous Rye
3/4 oz Quady Deviation
1/2 oz Ramazzatti Amaro
1/4 oz honey
rosemary
Muddle rosemary in a julep cup. Add other ingredients, and add crushed ice. Stir. Top with ice and rosemary sprig garnish.
Recipe created by Holly Booth and Steve Walton.
Slaughter Kid
1 oz Quady Vintage 2006 Starboard
3/4 oz High West Campfire
6 drops Beehive Bitters coffee/cacao
1/4 oz Cynar
bar spoon Gray Ghost Black Tea
cherry garnish
Combine ingredients in a mixing glass. Stir. Serve up in a coupe glass. Garnish with cherry.
Recipe created by Holly Booth and Steve Walton.
Wild Bunch Tea
2 oz High West Double Rye
1 1/2 oz rooibos tea
1/2 oz Quady Essensia
bar spoon Quady Palomino Fino
3/4 oz lemon juice
Combine ingredients in a shaker. Shake. Serve over chipped ice in a Collins glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Recipe created by Holly Booth and Steve Walton.
Western Sage Mule
2 oz Vya Extra Dry Vermouth
2 oz ginger beer
1 3/4 oz High West American Prairie Bourbon
4 blackberries
3/4 oz lime juice
1 1/2 oz sage simple syrup*
Muddle blackberries in the bottom of mug. Pour in sage syrup and lime juice. Fill glass with ice. Top with American Prairie, Vya Extra Dry, and ginger beer. Stir to combine. Garnish.
*Sage simple syrup
½ cup sugar
7 sage leaves
Bring sugar and ½ cup of water to boil in a saucepan. Stir in sage. Remove from heat. Let cool completely. Strain.
Recipe created by Dana Fares.
50:50 Manhattan
1 1/2 oz Vya Sweet Vermouth
1 1/2 oz High West Rye
3 shakes Regan’s Orange Bitters
orange peel garnish
Stir ingredients with ice in a mixing glass. Strain. Garnish with orange peel.
The original 1870s Manhattan called for equal parts vermouth and whiskey.
Cafe Brulot
2 oz High West Double Rye
1.5 oz Vya Sweet Vermouth
2 cinnamon sticks
8 whole cloves
peel of lemon
1/12 tbsp. sugar
3 cups strong black coffee.
Heat the first six ingredients on an open flame. Before the liquid comes to a boil, add hot coffee and remove from the heat. Serve in a glass mug.
Recipe adapted by Dana Fares. Also known as “devilishly burned coffee”, Café Brulot became popular during prohibition as a tasty way to conceal alcohol.
NOLA Milk Punch:
2.5 oz High West Rendezvous Rye
1/2 oz Vya Sweet Vermouth
2 oz half and half
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tsp powdered sugar
grated nutmeg.
Combine ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake. Strain.
Recipe adapted by Dana Fares. Milk punch is a popular NOLA brunch/hair of the dog first served in 1862.
Roffignac:
1.5 oz High West American Prairie Bourbon
1 oz Quady Elysium raspberry syrup*
soda water
Combine ingredients in a glass with ice. Top with soda water.
*Elysium raspberry syrup
2 cups Elysium
1/4 cup raw sugar
6 oz raspberries
Combine in a pan. Bring to a simmer. Turn off heat. Let sit for 5-10 minutes, stir occasionally.
Recipe adapted by Dana Fares. The Roffignac is named after New Orleans’ first French Mayor, Count Louis Philippe Joseph de Roffignac, and has been a classic since the early 1890’s.