The Gust of a Thousand Winds

John Gibian

The Lion’s Share is like something out of a classic film: a dimly lit bar with jazzy music playing, and a bartender who just gets you. I’m making conversation with Bar Lead John Gibian about his newest cocktail, which he happened to name after one of my favorite shows. “It’s a reference to an It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode: when Dennis says, ‘I’ll come down on you like Thor’s hammer and the gust of a thousand winds!’ For some reason, watching that, I was like, ‘That’s a cocktail name!’”

The drink is “a visualization of a New York Sour, being a whiskey sour with a red wine float. So it’s really beautiful; it’s eye-catching. I took the idea of that and made it into more of a cocktail that uses ingredients that people aren’t generally familiar with.” The base is split between Peruvian and Italian brandies. “I knew I liked the general profile of the pisco and grappa working together, and I really wanted to run with that.”

Here, Gibian is using an unaged Nardini grappa. “The flavor profile is prominent and strong, but it’s not going to overtake every other flavor in the cocktail. In fact, it’s more of a complementing liquor in the drink, compared to the pisco.” The recipe consists almost exclusively of grape-centered ingredients, the third being verjus. Explains Gibian: “It’s essentially a grape juice, but it’s got such high acidity that it’s just more of a cooking ingredient. The bartending world is starting to welcome it as a substitute or complement to citrus, like lemon or lime. However, it doesn’t have the perfect amount of tartness I’m looking for, so I added citric acid to give it more of that pop.”

A bit of honey brings out floral notes in the brandies. “And then I top it off with this thin layer of Zinfandel. It’s got this really earthy, dark fruit character that was perfect for it.” Visually, “it gives this bright red topper, while the whole cocktail is just a really light, beautiful, bright yellow. And floating on this big sphere of ice, that little layer of Zin gives a really nice, deep complexity.”

His tip for achieving the red wine float: “Soft hands. What you don’t want to do is splash it into the cocktail with any force, because then it’s going to incorporate into the drink. It helps when you’re using a larger ice cube — you lay the spoon over the big rock, let it fall and spread over the top.”

The Lion's Share

The Lion’s Share’s

The Gust of a Thousand Winds

• 1 ½ oz Pisco
• ½ oz Grappa
• 1 oz acid-adjusted verjus blanc (cold dilute 1g citric acid into 200g verjus)
• ½ oz honey syrup

Add all ingredients to a mixing tin and shake thoroughly. Strain over an ice sphere into double old fashioned glass. Gently float ¾ oz Zinfandel on top.