My intention today was to make Jerry Thomas’ series of cobbler drinks – but once again I hit a wall as I don’t have any catawba wine, which one of the cobblers calls for. Every time I’ve tried to procure this varietal, there’s been none for sale on-line and not one of the restaurant’s wine reps had any clue what I was talking about. But I decided to google it for the hell of it and for the first time, an option popped up to buy a bottle on line. Which is very exciting and as soon as I get the bottle, I am going to make all of the cocktails that call for catawba before the wine oxidizes.
For the meantime, I made the Knickerbocker – which is the most in style of Thomas’ drinks to what most people expect from a cocktail today. It is pretty much a raspberry lemondrop with a little curacoa but made with rum. The recipe calls for Santa Cruz rum which refers to rum from the Virgin Islands, so I used Cruzan light because I felt that the delicate flavors from the lemon and raspberry syrup would be lost with a darker rum.
I thought this was delicious.
Knickerbocker
in modern day measurements
2 ounces Cruzan light rum
1/2 ounce Citronage
2 ounces raspberry syrup
2 ounces fresh squeezed lemon
Raspberry syrup recipe
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cups frozen raspberries
Bring ingredients to a boil and immediately pull off. Let cool and then puree in a food processor.
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New York State’s Finger Lakes region is full of Catawba. I know Bully Hill winery makes it. It’s a funkier grape/wine than any of the noble varieties out there.