Today in the New York Times there was an article about barrel-aging cocktails, and I remembered that one of our local bar stars debuted a barrel-aged cocktail of her own a few weeks ago at the Tigress. According to the Times piece, barrel aging was first explored by London bartender Tony Conigliaro in 2004. The first time I really started paying attention to it was when Jeffrey Morgenthaler started writing about it (and when others in turn started writing about him) with his aged Negroni experiments.

For those of you who are not inclined to travel to either New York or Portland for a cocktail, there is good news: at the Tigress Pub on North Loop, a comfortable drive for most Austinites, you can sample a barrel-aged cocktail from the hands of Lara Nixon, "Brand Wrangler" for Balcones Spirits and my partner-in-crime for Tipsy Tech. For her first go at the Barrel, Lara chose that venerable classic of New Orleans, the Vieux Carré. Typically made with a base of Cognac, Rye, and Sweet Vermouth, Lara decided to substitute Balcones Rumble for the Cognac. The cocktail would then be aged in a Rumble barrel. Though Rumble defies categorization, the distillate of figs, wildflower honey and turbinado sugar has a very brandy-like quality to me. The barrel aging rounds out the corners of this cocktail, and the cocktail will be available for a short time at the Tigress.

Nixon was putting on a showcase of cocktails made with Balcones spirits. She made a hell of an Egg Nog that night, and if I successfully coax the recipe out of her I will post it here.