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Nightjar launches vintage spirits list
Boutique London cocktail bar the Nightjar has launched a cocktail list featuring rare vintage spirits at deliberately affordable prices.
1863 Hannisville Rye
The list is made up of scarce examples of all the major spirits sourced over the past two years by co-owner Edmund Weil and bar manager Marian Beke at auction and through specialist dealers.
Given the Nightjar’s speakeasy theme, the aim of the list was to create a collection of cocktails made with bottles from the golden ages of alcohol history.
“While other bars might crank up the price of vintage spirits to eye-watering levels, ours sell at affordable prices so a wider audience can enjoy incredibly fine alcohol,” co-owner Rosie Stimpson told the drinks business.
Highlights of the collection include a bottle of 1863 Hannisville Rye from Hannis Distillery in West Virginia, which predates Prohibition by 57 years.
Also on the list is a rare Monticello Rye from Baltimore dating back to the 1880s, the favourite brand of Baltimore journalist and anti-Prohibitionist H.L Mencken.
Regarded as one of the most influential American writers of the first half of the 20th century, Mencken spoke out against the temperance movement, calling Prohibition “a horror”.
Other vintage spirits featured include El Chico rum from the 1930s, Dow’s Pigeon Blend Scotch whisky from the 1920s, Marnier Lapostolle Cognac (c.1910), and Fox’s Cherry Brandy from the 1940s.
Pimms No. 1 from 1905
“We’re really excited to launch this menu, offering our customers the chance to sample what are essentially liquid time capsules,” Beke told db.
Individual samples are available from £30, while a Manhattan made with rye from 1863 and a Martinez mixed with Old Tom gin from 1910 are priced at £100.
A taste of British liquid history is available through a rare bottle of Pimms No. 1 (c.1905), a survivor from the brand’s heyday when the company was owned by Mayor of London Frederick Sawyer.
Last month, world-renowned bartender Salvatrore Calabrese broke the Guinness World Record for the most expensive cocktail for “Salvatore’s Legacy”, priced at £5,500 a glass.
The cocktail was composed of 40ml of 1788 Clos de Griffier Vieux Cognac, 20ml of 1770 Kummel Liqueur, 20ml of 1860 Dubb Orange Curaçao and two dashes of Angostura Bitters from the 1900s.