MixMo LXIX: Fortified Wines – Bon-Accord

New Year holidays are over, but Frederic continues fun announcing next Mixology Monday event. Thanks to Jordan Devereaux whose Chemistry of the Cocktail blog hosts the event for choosing so excellent choice – «Fortified Wines».

Fortified wines are known as old and reliable cocktail components used in many mixed drinks such as cobblers, punches, flips, sangarees. Later they started to concede their positions to vermouths which are fortified wines too but also are aromatized with herbs, roots etc.
Anyway, Jordan challenge us with such words:

 

For this month’s Mixology Monday, I’d like to see what you all can do with these versatile wines. They can play many different roles – from taking the place of vermouths in classic drinks, to providing richness and sweetness in winter tipples, to serving as a base for lighter aperitifs. Whether forgotten classics or new creations, let’s see what you can put together.

For me, it was easy decision to select between few fortified wines I can buy in Moscow. Sherry is my obvious choice.

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Tuxedo Cocktail

I’ve learnt about Tuxedo cocktail from David Wondrich’s Esquire Drink Database. So I thought that it’s made exclusively with sherry. Once enjoying Tuxedo with genever and dry sherry, I started to search for more information about this cocktail. To my shame, it appears that Tuxedo was a well-known and popular cocktail in the first half of 20th century.
The oldest source I could find, Harry Johnson’s «New And Improved Bartendes’ Manual» described Tuxedo as a cocktail with French vermouth, not sherry.

Later sources, «The Savoy Cocktail Book» and «Approved Cocktails, authorized by UK bartenders guild» also mentioned Tuxedo with vermouth. Moreover, «The Savoy Cocktail Book» contains two Tuxedo versions.

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