Yours Truel-ly

Recipe

1 oz Bourbon Whiskey (I used Bulleit Bourbon.)
1 oz Campari
1 oz Amontillado Medium Sherry (I used Savory & James Deluxe Medium Sherry Amontillado.)

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled coupe.

Garnish with an orange twist.

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I’ve been invited to a fiftieth birthday party, and the hostess has asked me to create a drink for the occasion. I launched into research about 1966 in search of inspiration. Popular song? Wild Thing. Not bad. I could go with a Mad Men theme, but that seems a bit vague. Top Movie? The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

Now, that’s something you can build a drink around.

I rented the movie in hopes there would be bar scenes but only came across unmarked bottles of hooch and one bottle marked “Bourbon,” which I opted to use as my base spirit. I did a little background research on the making of the film and learned that while it’s set in the Union state of New Mexico and the Confederate  state of Texas during the Civil War, it was a spaghetti western shot in the Spanish desert with mostly Spanish- and Italian-speaking actors.

Starting with the recipe for a Boulevardier, which is itself a riff on a Negroni, I’ve tipped my hat to the the Italians with the Campari and to the Spaniards by adding Amontillado Medium Sherry instead of sweet vermouth.

Finally, the name is inspired by the Mexican standoff at the end of the movie, which is also known as a truel. Apparently, mathematicians (and Quentin Tarantino) love to study the various ways truels can play out. Luckily, when it comes to Yours Truel-ly, everybody wins.