The beverage director at Juliet, an Austin-based Italian restaurant, has been busy. He’s not only just released a complex new cocktail menu for the space — he also recently won the Experience Cognac Competition in New York City and is headed to the French town of Cognac later this year.
And it’s no wonder he crafted the winning cocktail, Heard It Through the Grapevine, which you can replicate with the recipe below.
Campbell has a love of cognac, a variety of French brandy, and finds that it’s got a lot of uses in cocktails, with “many of the same characteristics as whiskey,” he says.
“When making cocktails using cognac, I tend to use brighter, more acidic, drier styles such as Pierre Ferrand 1840, Landy VS, or H by Hine,” he says. “These styles of cognac typically give your cocktail more balance and allows for the cognac to stand out and not get overpowered by other flavors.”
His Heard It Through the Grapevine is comprised primarily of grape spirits — hence the name. It’s “a balance between sweet bright fruit flavors like pear” and more “herbal vegetal notes,” and it shows off the potential of cognac, one of the Old World drinks that is often overlooked in this current renaissance behind the bar.
Heard It Through The Grapevine
1 1/2 oz. Pierre Ferrand 1840 Cognac
3/4 oz. Graham’s 20 Year Tawny Port
1/2 oz. Bonal Gentiane Quina
1/3 oz. Velvet Falernum
1/4 oz. Benedictine
Garnish orange zest
Combine all ingredients, except for the orange zest, and stir. Pour the mixture into a chilled Nick and Nora glass and garnish with the orange zest.
— Jeramy Campbell of Juliet
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