When it comes to cocktails, few satisfy quite like the Old Fashioned. Ranked the most popular cocktail in the world for seven years and counting by Drinks International, Old Fashioned cocktails offer something for everyone. Based on your preferences, the cocktail can lean into the bartender’s sweetener of choice, or highlight the crisp bite of your favorite whiskey. It’s both versatile and fun to drink, making it easy to see why it’s a consistent fan favorite.
“Everyone loves an Old Fashioned,” says Russell Greene, bar supervisor and tobacconist at Castle Hot Springs’ Bar 1896. “It’s by far the top seller here, and is especially perfect in the winter.”
After years of mixing thousands of whiskey drinks, Greene has more than mastered the craft. Before opening Bar 1896 in February 2019, he was manning the bar at Magnum’s Cigars, Wine and Liquor in Phoenix, Arizona, where he had more than 1,000 bottles of whiskey to choose from. But even with dozens of cocktail options at the tips of his fingers, Greene says his favorite is the Old Fashioned-style cocktail he invented for Dave Pickerell a few years back.
Pickerell was known in the spirits industry as the godfather of whiskey. He was a talented chemical engineer-turned-master distiller who played a central role in the growth of Maker’s Mark bourbon, WhistlePig rye whiskey, and the development and success of dozens of small craft distilleries around the U.S.
He was also a frequent presence at Magnum’s, and over the years he and Greene formed a friendship. Three months before Pickerell’s untimely death in 2018, Greene presented him with The Pickerell. “If there were one drink to describe Dave, it would be an Old Fashioned,” Greene says. Pickerell loved his eponymous cocktail, and it’s been a staple of Greene’s repertoire ever since.
The Pickerell features WhistlePig 12-year, which blends whiskeys finished in Port pipes, French Sauternes barrels, and Madeira casks, imparting a slightly sweet, caramel, dark-fruit finish to the spirit. The cocktail is rounded out by the generous use of bitters and just a hint of sweetness, courtesy of a bar spoon-full of WhistlePig maple syrup.
The Pickerell
Ingredients
2 oz WhistlePig 12-Year
2 dashes Bogart’s Bitters
8 dashes Fee Brothers Black Walnut Bitters
Bar spoon of WhistlePig Maple Syrup
Combine all ingredients in a Yarai mixing glass and add a generous amount of ice. Stir 20 times, then pour over a fresh, large-format ice cube. Garnish with a flamed, expressed orange peel and one or two Luxardo cherries.