“Joseph and I lounge on the deck with our Yacht Wine, taking in the ocean air. The sun starts to dip below the horizon.” - Dad Avatar, Dream Daddy

Inspiration

Being that Joseph Christiansen is a man of God, it felt right to give him a drink that contained the blood of Christ (by that I mean sweet sweet vino, and by that I mean wine). I’m not sure about you, but when I think about cocktails with wine in them I immediately imagine the layered beauty that is the New York Sour. Essentially a whisky sour with wine on top of it, I figured we could modify it to be more in line with Joseph’s naval tendencies and totally faithful practices.

Drawing upon my Catholic foundational knowledge I’m aware that Jesus Christ was a Jewish man who likely celebrated Passover. I wondered that if Jesus were to drink a high-proof spirit, what would it be? According to at least one incredibly reputable online source (and a question to one or two of my Jewish cronies), a spirit likely to make an appearance at the Passover table is plum brandy or Slivovitz.

Spoiler alert, Joseph has a yacht. He may or may not have a fantasy to be a captain one day, which is downright adorable. Being the enabler that I am, I adorned this drink’s chilled glass with a nautical ship wheel and did my best attempt at a Bowline’s knot to keep it attached to the stem. Surely, Joseph would be impressed.

Workshopping

My initial attempt at this cocktail quite literally swapped out the whisky in a New York Sour with Slivovitz, and for all intents and purposes, it tasted amazing! That recipe had 2 oz of Slivovitz, 1 oz of lemon juice, ¾ oz of simple syrup, an egg white, and a float of red wine. Although it tasted great, the glaring issue in my eyes was that it just tasted like sweetened plum brandy and the wine took a back seat. My recent philosophy on cocktail build is that all of the ingredients should have some aspect of them perceptible in the final build. The plum brandy (Slivovitz) being so noticeable as it was, I felt the need to dial it back a bit.

Since Slivovitz is plum brandy (see that I’ve been using them interchangeably?) I tried splitting the base of this drink to even it out a bit. The Clear Creek plum brandy I used is unaged and without any color, so I split it with Cognac which is aged. Typically, aged spirits will have softer flavors than unaged ones in part due to their time spent exposed to wood. The adjusted recipe found below allows for the aspects of all the main ingredients to shine through. The plum brandy gives a fruity sweetness, the Cognac gives a smooth mouthfeel, and the wine contrasts with a dry texture and a boost of savor.

In keeping with Joseph’s sea-faring captain fantasies, I tried adding a couple of drops of saline solution while workshopping and found that it had a brightening effect on the drink’s flavors. I decided not to include it in the final recipe spec since it didn’t feel absolutely necessary. Allegedly, a couple of drops of saline in every cocktail is a good idea, but that seems to be a matter of opinion. What are your thoughts?

Flavor Analysis

Incredibly fruit-forward (and not necessarily in the sweet kind of way) with heavy notes of plum. A dry savor from the red wine adds its own fruitiness supporting the deep plum flavor further. For me, this recipe balances the sweet and the sour, and you can adjust the ratio of syrup and lemon juice to compensate for your own palate preferences.