I will sometimes get tips or Christmas Gifts from my clients. This year, one of the gifts was a super tasty red wine named Apothic Red Winemaker's Blend. It is a delicious red wine from Modesto, California. Now, I wouldn’t normally talk about wine on a bourbon site, but they had more than one Bourbon and Wine Cocktails on their website that I tried and they were good enough that I wanted to share them with you. First though, Let’s go over some quick tasting notes for the wine itself. I like many wines, but I’m by no means a tasting expert on them so forgive me if I use the wrong terms.
Apothic Red: Winemaker’s Blend
Purchase Info: This was a gift, but I can get it locally for about $10.
Nose: Dark cherry and a hint of chocolate
Mouth: Relatively sweet but nicely balanced by tanins. Fruity with notes of dark cherry and cranberry.
Ok, so now that we have that out of the way, let’s get into the cocktails because these were a big surprise to me. I’ve got two to share with you. Both are from the brand website. One is very wine forward, the other is very bourbon forward.
Maple Bourbon Sour Cocktail
1.5 oz. bourbon
1 oz. fresh lemon juice
1 oz. maple syrup
0.5 oz. Apothic Red
Directions:
In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine bourbon, lemon juice and maple syrup.
Shake and strain into rocks glass with a large piece of ice.
Float the Apothic Red over the drink (pour gently over the bar of a spoon) and serve.
Garnish with lemon zest and a cinnamon stick
Thoughts: I’m not normally a bourbon sour sort of person, but the addition of the wine floating on top really took this to another level. I’m honestly shocked at how good this is. The maple adds a nice sweetness too. Just really tasty.
This next one is a little more involved and it originally made four drinks. I decided to cut it down a bit but feel free to double everything and make the full batch if you prefer.
Apothic Spice Cocktail
4 oz Apothic Red
0.5 oz Bourbon
2 tbsp brown sugar
5 cardamom pods
0.5 inch fresh ginger, (peeled and sliced)
5 whole cloves
3 whole star anise
pinch cayenne pepper
whipped cream
cinnamon sticks
Bourbon Cream (optional)
Directions:
Combine wine, brown sugar, cardamom, ginger, cloves, and star anise in a small sauce pan and heat to about 145°F while stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar.
Remove from heat and add the cayenne, Bourbon and optional splash of Bourbon Cream.
Strain the mixture into 2 glasses and top with whipped cream and a cinnamon stick and serve while still warm.
Thoughts: This is like a glass of Christmas. There was no bourbon cream in the original recipe but I loved the silky mouthfeel that stirring in the whipped cream gave me. The bourbon cream accomplished that while allowing your drink to not look like vomit (as mine did when I stirred in the whipped cream). I enjoyed the wine, but this cocktail is really why I’ll be buying this one again.
I hope that you all had a Merry Christmas and please have a safe and happy New Year.
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