Vintage Cocktails...Anyone?

Filed in archive Cocktail Experiments , Something Different on June 2, 2010

© larryvincent

Okay, wines and spirits you can age in barrels and bottles. But can you age a previously prepared cocktail?

Tony Conigliaro, owner of 69 Colebrooke Row in London's Islington district sure wanted to find out!

So he has matured batches of Manhattans, El Presidentes and Harvard cocktails (effectively a Manhattan made with Cognac) in bottles in his cellar.

After some 20 trials, he found out that some even had awful tastes, especially those where he added barrel staves. When he forgot all about them, a year later he found out the most astonishing thing: the manhattan had become smoother, with the bourbon, vermouth and bitters all magnificently integrated - in a manner so vastly different from the basic cocktail.

It has been five years since Conigliaro launched a program of laying down drinks in 48-bottle batches every six months and then selling them as limited-edition vintages when he feels they're ready. So his experiment has worked so far!