Booze You Can Use

Dram Jumps Aboard the Barrel-Aged Bandwagon

A barrel-aged negroni.
A barrel-aged negroni. Photo: Courtesy of Marlo Marketing

As promised back in October, Williamsburg’s Dram has joined in the barrel-aged-cocktail trend by unveiling a Martinez that’s aged for ten weeks in a Tuthilltown rye whiskey barrel. Owner Tom Chadwick stuck to a standard Martinez recipe (gin — he uses Beefeater — sweet vermouth, maraschino liqueur, and Angostura bitters), with a lemon twist on the side so as not to overpower the drink. “I really like the aromatics” produced by aging, he told us. “When you smell it, it does almost smell like a fifteen-year-old aged spirit … the rye definitely comes out.”

While most drinks at Dram go for $9 or $10, Chadwick has priced this one at $15, partly because he wants it to “stand out,” and partly because of its limited run — he estimates that at the rate it’s been selling, ten or twelve per night, he has about two weeks left before the remaining three liters run out. After that, Chadwick and his team will likely put up some other cocktail to mature in the barrel. “We have to think about a spirit that would age well,” he tells us. Either way, with Greg Seider’s Lions of London aged negroni over at Summit Bar and the Flowers of Evil (gin, vermouth, orange bitters, honey) from Martim Ake Smith-Mattsson, which recently saw its last drop poured at Madame Genveva, we can officially declare that three instances make this a New York trend!

Dram Jumps Aboard the Barrel-Aged Bandwagon