The Barrel-Aged Negronis Are Uncorked

It's been seven weeks since I filled a three-gallon Tuthilltown oak barrel with Campari, gin and sweet vermouth, and it's time to taste the barrel-aged Negronis. I have been sampling them all along, of course. About once a week. They progressed nicely, and according to expectations. Though I discovered along the way the hitherto unknown information that my wife does not like Negronis, aged or not. This was heartbreaking news. But she has bravely continued to taste them, hoping to bring her taste buds around.

To cut to the chase, the experiment has been a success. I strained the liquid through cheesecloth through a funnel into a series of glass jugs. The Negronis taste as good as any aged cocktail I've had in a professional bar. The naked truth is, barrel-aged cocktails are not a challenge. Anyone can make them. This does not denigrate their quality in any way. They are tasty little specimens. But making them is not rocket science. You just need liquor, a barrel and time.



Jeffrey Morgenthaler, the founder of this national trend, was right to steer me in the direction of Negronis. Barrel-aging has a wonderful effect on vermouth, faintly oxidizing it and adding dimension to the drink. As with the other barrel-aged cocktails I've had, my Negronis have taken on depth and smoothness. It's the kind of cocktail that makes you pause and think after the first sip. You can't belt it back, and you can't drink it without drifting into errant contemplation.

A friend of mine who is a home brewer suspected that, following this experiment, my barrel was "dead," and couldn't be used to anything else. This made me despair. So I consulted Morgenthaler. He said nay—wash it out and fill it with another cocktail. I think I will be going in the direction of rum or tequila this time around.

High West Whiskey to Bottle Barrel-Aged Manhattans

In less than a year, the barrel-aged cocktail trend has gone from a bar room in Portland to liquor store shelves.

High West Distillery of Utah has announced that on Dec. 5 it will release "The 36th Vote—Barreled Manhattan." That's right, it's a commercially available, bottled barrel-aged cocktail. Just as the bewitching elixirs were reaching bars across the nation, exciting drinkers across the country, now they will be a commonplace, a thing you can pick up at your local store.

The product has actually already kicked. October 15 was the launch of the same liquor, billed as "The US Grant Centennial Celebration Barreled Manhattan." It was specifically crafted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of The US Grant, a luxury hotel in San Diego, California. This Manhattan was a collaboration between Jeff Josenhans, chief mixologist and sommelier for the US Grant, and David Perkins, proprietor of High West Distillery and Saloon. The mix uses, of course, High West Rye Whiskey, and "premium vermouth" (which, I wonder).

And just a day before my barrel-aged Negronis are ready.

Molto Nebbiolo at Maialino, Plus and Aged Martinez and Mix-and-Match Cocktails

The drinking is looking kinda interesting at the Maialino, the hot, vowel-heavy Italian restaurant near Union Square. The quirky, irresistible Nebbiolo Bar, set up by wine director Liz Nicholson, would be enough to draw in any curious drinker. It offers expressions of the red grape (best known as the raw material of Barolo and Barbaresco) from seven major growing areas in Italy and using different forms of vinification, including a sparkling, white, rose, and even an amarone-style wine. 

But now Nicholson has some competition from Kevin Denton, manager at the Gramercy Park Hotel Roof Club & Garden, who has put together a trio of intriguing cocktail options for the restaurant. Showing he's hip to the barrel-aged cocktail trend, Denton is offering Oak-Aged Martinez (Tom Gin, Sweet Vermouth and Maraschino). There's a seductive sounding spin on a classic in the Smoked Fig Old Fashioned, made of smoked fig-infused Rye whiskey and tobacco bitters. And, finally, there's an opportunity to experiment. An imbiber can match house-made root, birch and ginger beers with the spirit of their choice.

A smart, and nicely short, list.

Barrel Aged Cocktails Made at Home

Writing about barrel-aged cocktails as much as I have over the past few months, it dawned on my this summer that, though it sounds like a complex undertaking, making such a concoction is actually something anyone can try at home. All you need is a barrel and a lot of liquor.

Everyone I knew who was doing it seemed to be using barrels from Tuthilltown in the Hudson Valley. So I contacted the distillery and acquired a three-gallon barrel—which is about the sweetest little thing you ever saw. Adorable baby barrel. I then contacted Jeffrey Morgenthaler, the Portland bartender who got this trend rolling when he began selling barrel-aged cocktails at Clyde Common last fall, and then reported on his experience on his blog. I asked him what cocktail a novice should start with, and he named the Negroni. I basically followed his recipe, using Beefeater gin, Cinzano sweet vermouth and, of course, Campari. I had been leaning toward Dolin, since I like the stuff. But Morgenthaler recommended Cinzano for "the classic Italian flavor."

And then there was a delay, as it dawned on me that three gallons of liquor is more than you would think, and I'd need more than $300 to fill that tiny cask. Finally, last week, after paying umpteen necessary bills, I found myself with the necessary extra cash on hand. I mixed all the liquor together first, as per Morgenthaler's directions, before funneling it into the barrel. I thought I was being rather sloppy, because drops of Negroni kept spilling on the counter and pooling on to the floor. But then I realized with horror that there was a leak! The cask was dribbling out Negroni on both ends. I panicked and quickly emptied the liquor back into the container in which I had mixed it. I was seeing red, and not just because of the Campari. I finally got all the booze together, and the barrel didn't even hold water!

At that moment, I had to run out and pick up my kid from school. While there, I ran into a friend who is a homebrewer and vented my tale of woe. He suggested that the cask had dried out and the seams between the staves were not as tight as they once were. Perhaps if I immersed it in water. I went home and emailed Gable Erenzo from Tuthilltown and he basically echoed my friend's advice: put the barrel in my bathtub and keep topping it off with water until the leaking stopped, "which it should."

I started the process in my kitchen sink, as it was more handy, soaking each side of the barrel and keeping the insides filled at all times. It seemed to be working. With each dip, the barrel leaked less. But when I put the dry, filled cask in a large dry bowl, there were always still a few drops that escaped. A half-hour dunking in a bathtub full of water finally did the trick. The barrel was tight as a drum once again.

Back to the kitchen. I funneled the Negronis into the wooden vessel for a second time. No leaks at all this time. Mission accomplished.

Strangely, though I followed Morgenthaler's recipe to the ounce, I had some pre-mixed Negroni left over. So I found a glass growler and funneled it in there. Morgenthaler, after all, had been inspired by Tony Conigliaro of London, who ages his cocktails in glass. I'll leave that container alone for a year or more, as Tony does, and see what happens. The barrel-aged brew, however, should be ready in a couple months. I will post again then.

Summit Bar Sells City's First Barrel-Aged Cocktail

In a come-from-behind surprise, Gregory Seider's Lower East Side joint Summit Bar has become the first bar in New York to serve an example of the growing national trend known as barrel-aged cocktails. This week, Seider started pouring Lions in London (a variation on the Negroni), which he had been aging in barrel for the past couple months.

Previously, it had seemed that Dram in Williamsburg would be the break-out New York bar for the new technique, which was invented by bartender Jeffrey Morganthaler in Portland, Oregon. But the barrel Dram owner Tom Chadwick told me that the cask he was aging his Martinez cocktails in turned out to have a leak. So he had to start over. He hopes to start served the delicacy in early October.

Meanwhile, this journalist has started aging Negronis at home. More about that in a future post.

UPDATE: Went to tried it. Very good. As with my previous barrel-aged cocktail experiences, it's a well integrated, smooth and deep drink. A downside, someone might argue, is that the cocktail lacks the original spark of the involved liquors. The gin and Campari have been tamed and soothed. Still, if you want a regular Negroni, have one. If you want this, have this.

One warning: the Summit aged Lions in London is $18! Since it contains that same liquors as the regular Lions in London, and the barrel cost is negligible over time, you're paying for scarcity here. There are only so many of the drinks to go around until a new barrel is ready.

The bartender told me Seider is readying an entire line of aged cocktails.

The Corn Harvest Arrives at PDT

For some time now, I listed the Imperial Silver Corn Fizz under the Damn Good Cocktails column to the right. Which has been rather cruel of me, since you couldn't order the damn thing anywhere in the country.

That changed on Aug. 30, when Jim Meehan, bar master at PDT, and author of the drink, added to the fizz to the PDT menu.

I was lucky enough to try the cocktail on it's initial voyage, at a cocktail dinner in fall 2009. It is a combination of homemade corn water, whiskey, honey syrup, champagne and egg white, shaken into a frothy concoction that is pale yellow at bottom, white on top. As I wrote then, if there was such a thing as creamed corn whiskey, it might taste like this lightly sweet, absolutely unusual drink.

Meehan has tweaked it a bit. He switched from Maker's Mark to George Dickel, which is not a small thing, since we're talking Tennessee Whiskey now, not Bourbon. But I like Dickel better anyway. So good.

So go and try it and see if you don't agree with me. Enjoy the fruits of the harvest.

The Barrel-Aged Aged Cocktail Trend Will Not Be Stopped

First Portland, then New York and Madison, and now Boston. Barrel-aged cocktails are spreading across the nation at wildfire speed.

This fall, Hugh Reynolds, bar manager at Temple Bar in Cambridge, MA, will add whiskey barrel-aged Negronis to his menu. As with every other bar that's trying this trick, he got his mini-barrels from New York's Tuthilltown Distillery, which has parlayed this trend into a nice sideline.

Reynolds got the idea from Portland, Oregon, bartender Jeffrey Morganthaler, who was inspired by Tony Conigliaro in London, who ages Manhattans in glass bottles for up to five years. (The process is considerably faster in wood.) Morganthaler's concoctions have been selling like hotcakes since he introduced them last fall. Since then, the notion has been latched onto by a growing number of edgy, and not so edgy, cocktail bars.

Reynolds mixes up his Negronis using local Berkshire Mountain Distillery’s Ethereal Gin (a small-batch gin with varying levels of botanicals like rose petals and orange peel in each batch), Campari and Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth. He then lets the cocktail age in the barrels for six weeks. Next up for the treatment is a rum cocktail called the Cherry Valance, made of Appleton Estate Rum, Cherry Heering and chocolate bitters.

Yet More on Barrel-Aged Cocktails

I heard about Jeffrey Morgenthaler's experiments with barrel-aged cocktails of in Portland a couple months ago and have posted a couple items here since then. Here's my first paid piece on the subject. I was surprised how quickly the idea had caught on. If I wait until the end of summer, I can sample a specimen here in New York. No need to fly to Portland. (Not that I don't want to fly to Portland.)

Here's the article:

Shelf Life

In today's hyperactive cocktail climate, new ideas travel faster than a bottle of Fernet Branca in a room full of mixologists. Case in point: barrel-aged cocktails.

The seed was planted when Portland, Oregon-based bartender Jeffrey Morgenthaler tasted a Manhattan that had been aged five years in a glass vessel by noted London bartender Tony Conigliaro. Back at home in his bar, Clyde Common, he began aging cocktails in barrels instead of bottles to cut down the wait time. 

An avid blogger, Morgenthaler quickly posted the results--smooth and nuanced drinks that brought new life to old formulas--and it didn't take long for others to catch on.

Nathan Kinderman, the bar manager at the restaurant Sardine in Madison, Wisconsin, is aging Negronis using locally made Death's Door Gin.

In New York, Greg Seider at Summit Bar plans to put a couple of his original cocktails in barrels, while Tom Chadwick at Dram in Brooklyn may be the first to experiment with an aged Martinez (a variation of the martini, made with gin, sweet vermouth and maraschino liqueur).

Thanks to easy access to mini barrels, it's only a matter of time before the craze hits the home bar. For the experimental set, a few suggestions:

• Stay away from aging whiskey-based drinks in whiskey barrels (too much of a good thing); instead, try Tridents or El Presidentes.

• Stick with spirits-only cocktails: Dairy and fruit juice are not meant for aging (with the surprising exception of eggnog, which Morgenthaler ages in bottles).

• Be patient: Give the contents at least six weeks (for a two-gallon batch) to get optimal results.