February Drink of the Month - The Chapman Cobbler

Apparently beer cocktails are a big thing right now. With the craft beer revolution making nuanced, flavorful beer accessible to many people, I suppose it makes sense. However, since the reason I got into bartending and the art of the cocktail was because I strongly dislike beer, this trend offends me on multiple levels. Wine, on the other hand, is always a wonderful addition to any cocktail. Over the past six years, I've made many sparkling drinks using champagne or  prosecco (I converted my mom and sister - their go to drink now is the Saint Germain Cocktial), but I never really had occasion to play with fortified wines, like port and sherry. However, this Christmas, Imbibe magazine ran a "25 Days of Holiday Drinks" that featured several wonderful concoctions using fortified wines. My favorite of these was the "Chapman Cobbler," which uses Amontillado sherry.

If (like me), your only exposure to Amontillado sherry is from the classic Edgar Allen Poe short story ("The Cask of Amontillado"), then perhaps some tasting notes are in order. There are four basic types of sherry. From lightest (and lowest alcohol content) to darkest they are: Fino (fine), Manzanilla, Amontillado, and Oloroso. These wines range in color and taste from dry, pale white to rich, dark amber. There are plenty of other variations on these four basic types, like the Manzanilla Pasada or the Palo Cortado (the former is a nuttier version of Manzanilla that has been aged longer than normal while the latter is a wine that is aged similar to Amontillado but either by accident or intention winds up closer to Oloroso in flavor profile). There are also a number of cream sherry varieties. Despite the fact that the higher fortified sherries are dark amber and red, all sherry comes from white Palomino grapes grown in Andalusia, Spain. The name "sherry" comes from the name of the town where the wines are produced, Jerez ed la Frontera (Jerez became sherry when it was anglicized). Who knew there was so much to know about fortified wines? And we still haven't touched on port yet (but maybe some day soon - my dad has gotten into tawny port, so I need to find something to do with that)!

The drink we'll be making this month features Amontillado sherry, applejack, orgeat syrup and a little bit of creme de noyeux (as well as lemon juice to help cut the sweetness). Three of these key ingredients have nutty flavor profiles. Orgeat, we may remember, is an almond-based syrup. Creme de noyeux also has an almond flavor, but it is actually made from apricot kernels (much like amaretto). Finally, sherry is also quite nutty. The resulting cocktail is fairly sweet (applejack being very sweet as well), but the mixing of flavor notes makes it complex and the acid from the lemon helps balance the drink. Be cautious when mixing this drink - add a little too much of any ingredient and you will overwhelm yourself with sweet (especially if you overdo the creme de noyeux). But balance it properly, and you have a wonderful winter drink!

Here is the recipe for the Chapman Cobbler (a cobbler is a class of sherry based drinks from the 1800s, so named because they used "cobblestone ice" in drink. Who knew!):

In a mixing glass, combine the following:

1 oz applejack

1 oz Amontillado sherry

0.75 oz lemon juice

0.75 oz orgeat syrup

one barspoon creme de noyeux (one barspoon = one teaspoon or 0.17 oz)

Shake over crushed ice and dump into a double rocks glass. Garnish with a lemon wheel.

Enjoy your Chapman Cobbler!