THE FALL Drinking GUIDE
THE BEST $9,700 COCKTAIL MONEY CAN BUY
It’s often said that you shouldn’t waste nice alcohol in a cocktail. This opinion is usually offered with the authoritative weight of fact: That if you have, say, a very nice bottle of whisky, the “right” way to experience it is in a glass, without ice, presumably alongside an eyedropper of branch water and a tasting notebook labeled How to Take the Fun Out of Drinking.
While it’s always wrong to tell other people how to drink, the admonition against using a pricier spirit to mix drinks is especially untrue for Scotch whisky and monumentally untrue for the Bobby Burns, composed of Scotch whisky, sweet vermouth and a kiss of the herbal French liqueur Bénédictine. (The drinkfrom 1930.) What sets Bobby Burns apart is its concentration of flavor and herbal charm; a Scotch Manhattan, called a Rob Roy, is a fine drink, but add the honeyed, herbal complexity of Bénédictine and it changes the game entirely. It remains a robust slow-sipper, but the liqueur offers a persistent, gentle sweetness, almost a warmth, charming to the point of enchantment. If drinking a Rob Roy is like sinking into an old leather chair, drinking a Bobby Burns is like sitting in that chair while listening to great jazz.
