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Dan Amatuzzi is the Vice President of Beverage at Eataly, overseeing wine and beverage operations across its North America locations. He lectures and teaches on wine throughout the country and has been featured in leading media publications including NBC’s The Today Show, Bloomberg Radio, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Food and Wine. His published books include A First Course in Wine (Racepoint 2013) and How to Host A Wine Tasting (Racepoint 2014). He blends material from both works for his popular wine and spirits course he teaches as part of the acclaimed Food Studies program at NYU Steinhardt. He is the co-founder of Grove and Vine, a bespoke olive oil and wine membership company specializing in direct-to-consumer custom-blended oils and wines, and is part-owner of Grand Vin Restaurant in Hoboken and The Allendale Social in Allendale, NJ. He enjoys hosting and sharing food and drink with his fellow residents and is proud to call Scotch Plains home where he lives with his wife and daughters.
For the Gentlemen’s Issue, Dan walks us through America’s most famous style of whiskey: Bourbon. He shares the recipe for a new era Bourbon cocktail, the Paper Plane. Recommended bourbons include Basil Hayden’s, Blanton’s, or Wild Turkey. All can be found at Sunrise Shoprite Liquors on South Avenue.
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Bourbon is classified as straight whiskey, meaning it’s crafted predominantly from one singular type of grain - in this case, corn. The majority of other whiskeys are produced from combinations of wheat, barley, and rye. Fermented corn gives bourbon its trademark honey, vanilla, and butterscotch flavors. Years of maturation in oak barrels gently elevate the flavors by layering in nuanced and complex notes of caramel, leather, cedar, and spice. Of all the whiskey options, bourbon stakes its claim as America’s national spirit, and in doing so, it carries the quiet confidence of tradition honed over generations. In the 1800s, early settlers west of the Appalachian Mountains struggled to sell their corn back east due to better and cheaper options that grew closer to markets. Alternatively, they chose to ferment and distill their harvested corn instead of selling it freshly grown. Slowly but surely, bourbon from states like Kentucky and Tennessee grew in popularity. The quiet demand has slowly grown into the insatiable thirst for Midwest bourbon that persists today. At current, we count nearly 800 different bourbon producers throughout the US. Bourbon is great for sipping on its own, either neat (without ice) or on the rocks (with ice). Add a side glass of water to sip on, and you’ve got the classic setup that Presidents Truman and Grant enjoyed while managing global diplomacy. Bourbon is also a great base for cocktails, providing a backbone to which even the amateur mixologist can find success. For those cool Summer nights still clinging to the chill of Spring, try the cocktail, paper plane, for an easy new take on a bourbon drink that serves up seasonality in a glass with balanced flavors of fresh citrus and bitters.
Paper Plane
¾ bourbon
¾ Aperol
¾ Amaro Nonino or other light style of amaro
¾ fresh lemon juice
Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add ingredients in order.
Shake and strain into a coupe glass. Garnish with a lemon twist.
“The warmth of bourbon is like the warmth of wisdom, shared among friends and through the ages.” – Plato