2 oz. Old Overholt rye whiskey
.67 oz. Nebbiolo reduction syrup
barspoon Elisir Novasalus
.75 oz. evergreen needle tea
Combine all ingredients in a snifter glass and serve neat.
Nebbiolo syrup
750mL nebbiolo wine
~400g sugar
Reduce wine by half volume to 375mL over low heat. If overreduced, add water to achieve this volume. Combine wine reduction and sugar in equal parts by weight and stir until sugar is fully dissolved.
Evergreen needle tea
30g dried hemlock needles
30g dried cedar needles
1000mL boiling water
Evergreen branches can be dried in a dehydrator overnight or in an oven at the lowest temperature setting for 30 minutes. Once dried it will be easy to remove the needles. Combine needles and boiling water in a vitamix or similar blender and blend for one minute. Strain through a nut milk bag.
A scaffa is a style of serving a drink neat at room temperature that was popular from the early days of cocktails until around the 1840s, when ice became readily available year-round. Often featuring minimal to no dilution, these drinks are quite "hot" in comparison to most cocktails. While I did up the dilution here to bring it more in line with modern tastes and to allow some of the more subtle flavors to shine, make no mistake, this is definitely a slow sipper. If ever a drink I created were a concept drink, this is it. Wes Anderson is one of my favorite directors, and the name of this drink just popped into my head one day. I immediately set about bringing it to life. Tannins are found in many plants and plant-derived products, and are responsible for the characteristic astringency of some red wines, barrel aged spirits, and black teas. The Nebbiolo grape in particular is highly tannic, so I thought making a syrup out of one and pairing it with an oak barrel aged rye would be a good start. Loosely based in a Manhattan spec, with the Nebbiolo syrup standing in for vermouth, I turned to Elisir Novasalus, an intensely bitter and dry vino amaro featuring Dolomitic herbs and berries, for the bitters. Diluting it with water just wouldn't do, so I foraged some needles from Eastern Hemlock and Eastern White Cedar trees. This drink went through countless iterations before I was satisfied with the result. At one point I tried milk washing it, and with the tannins stripped out it was a shell of its former self, which convinced me I had created what I set out to.