Highland’s Fall

60ml scotch whisky (Monkey Shoulder)

22.5ml elderflower liqueur (St Germain)



22.5ml lemon juice

5ml peated scotch (Laphroaig 10)

Shake first three ingredients over ice and strain into a chilled coupe glass. Float peated scotch on top.

This was one of the first cocktails I made; and on that occasion I made it totally wrong: with Famous Grouse and Bols in a highball filled with ice. How I expected the rinse/float to work I have no idea. It wasn’t great: thin, and too long and thus diluted by the end, but was interesting enough for me to try again. I located the original recipe and realised that it calls for a coupe - suddenly the rinse made more sense. I had St Germain, and a bottle of Monkey Shoulder I’d only drank neat so far: and this time it worked.

Monkey Shoulder is my favourite blended scotch; I’d place it up there with my single-malt sippers in terms of preference - perhaps something to do with it being a blend of only malt whiskies. It works here very well. You really need a full-bodied whisky for this to be properly enjoyable; so that the floral qualities of the elderflower have something to play with. The flavour is broad, with ‘tangy’ being the best word I have to describe it, and the play between the elderflower and the peat is just great. There are but a few interesting scotch cocktails, and I will continue to return to this one.



Recipe adapted from Peter Vestinos’ (via Bon Appétit).