East Wing

I'm not sure if this drink refers to the East Wing of the White House or some other use of the word wing, physical or metaphorical. I was surprised how full-bodied it was and complex with lots of brandy and cherry sugary goodness. I would ordinarily have made it with cherry brandy as the recipe calls for, but it is a little hard to come by in Virginia. I didn't have time to shop in D.C. and I wanted to make this drink soon. So I had already come up with my own recipe to turn brandy into cherry brandy that I found worked very well. It changed the grape brandy roundness to a slightly bitter and deep cherry flavor that a quality cherry brandy might have--without being overly sweet like a cherry liqueur.

Here's how I made cherry brandy substitute with 1 ounce of Catoctin Creek 1757 Reserve brandy. Add 1/2 tsp. Luxardo maraschino liqueur and 1/2 tsp. Bada Bing cherry juice (or other black cherry juice--not maraschino cherry--) to an ounce of brandy. This creates an ounce and a teaspoon of brandy that tastes very close to Cherry Heering, with the same dark red color. Use this same recipe to make a Singapore Sling taste sweet, rather than bitter, which you can't do with Luxardo maraschino alone.

• 3 oz. vodka
• 1 oz. cherry brandy (1 oz. Catoctin Creek 1757 Reserve, 1/2 tsp. bing cherry juice, 1/2 tsp. Luxardo maraschino liqueur used)
• 1/2 oz Campari
• lemon twist 

Combine all liquid ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.