The Reluctant Tabby Cat

This cocktail was created by Gary Regan, one of the notable figures in the recent resurgence of classic cocktails, and the author of several books with his wife, Mardee Haidin Regan. However, although I have one of their books, New Classic Cocktails, this drink is from p. 187 of my favorite cocktail recipe book, The Essential Bartender's Guide by Robert Hess.

The drink is pleasant, but while two of the ingredients were on hand, I had to settle for a blended Scotch rather than the suggested Laphroaig single malt. So I assume it does not quite taste as intended, but I don't have any single malt on hand and I'm not buying a bottle of single malt for one drink, thanks. I can mildly recommend the drink as is. No idea why it's called that, by the way. Possibly a pun I'm missing.

1 1/4 ounces Dubonnet rouge
1/2 ounce limoncello [Pallini] (this is also the recommended brand)
1/4 ounce Scotch whisky

Shake with ice and strain into a wine goblet. Garnish with a lemon twist.

You can see from the picture that the drink is rather small - that is by no means a large wine goblet - in fact it is a 4 oz. glass I generally use for cocktails. I wonder why the instructions say to shake rather than stir. Not sure it would matter.

When I began to experiment with old cocktails, and ran across recipes involving Dubonnet, a common and inexpensive aperitif, I had the odd circumstance of not being able to find Dubonnet locally - it was just in short supply at the time, according to vendors I asked. But I did have a bottle of Lillet rouge. So whenever the recipe called for Dubonnet, I used Lillet rouge, and came to rather prefer it. Dubonnet, when it finally turned up, tasted too sweet and weak by comparison. But it also overpowers some drinks, the Dandy, for example... I especially like it in the Opera. I wonder whether Lillet rouge might punch up this drink a bit.

A side note about Dubonnet and Lillet. Both are famous aperitifs that have been around for many years. Dubonnet, which is quite inexpensive (about $12 in Michigan), is famously popular among the higher classes - it features in what is alleged to be Queen Elizabeth's favorite drink. Lillet, which is substantially pricier (about $20 in Michigan), is also a rather tony drink. Both are basically sweetened, slightly bitter wines, cousins to vermouth, and are sometimes referred to as wine-based bitters.

When you see Dubonnet mentioned in a recipe, it is a reference to the rouge, or red. The white version is available, but does not feature in cocktail recipes. Lillet means white, (or blonde, or blanc) when mentioned in a recipe; the red is also available, but never used in cocktails.

So are the reds interchangeable? The whites? I've never tried Dubonnet white, but I've come to rather prefer Lillet in both varieties.

UPDATE: Oops, that's Caravella, not Pallini I used, isn't it? And I need a better camera if I'm going to keep doing this. You can get a 10 megapixel camera for half what we paid for a 5 megapixel a few years ago, so I might have to ante up.