Episode 232

Vanishing Spirits: The Art of Whisky with Ernie Button

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Vanishing Spirits: The Art of Whisky with Ernie Button

Episode 232

What’s shakin, cocktail fans?

Welcome to episode 232 of The Modern Bar Cart Podcast! I’m your host, Eric Kozlik.

Thanks for tuning into another interview episode, where we track down the best and brightest minds in the spirits and cocktail world so that we can share their secrets with you.

This time around, my guest is photographer and whisky enthusiast Ernie Button, whose brand new book, The Art of Whisky, is capturing the imaginations of spirits enthusiasts everywhere. In this stimulating conversation with photographer and whisky enthusiast Ernie Button, some of the topics we discuss include:

How Ernie married his way into a love for Scotch, and how that fondness turned to wonder and curiosity one night when he was about to put his whisky glasses into the dishwasher.
The collaborative approach that Ernie took to explore this subject, pulling in fluid dynamics physicists at Ivy League Universities, and even resulting in a published paper in an academic journal.
What it takes to coax the “fingerprint” out of each spirit he photographs, and why these images appear molecular, or planetary, or nebular in shape and structure.
By way of illustration, we look at a few images from The Art of Whisky, which help to showcase the ways in which whisky scatters and reflects light.
We also dig into some of the chemical forces responsible for these phenomena, in Ernie’s experience, including the influence of charred oak barrels, cask finishes, and peat.
Along the way, we discuss exciting developments in the rice whisky world, an encounter with barrel-aged Botanist Gin, why grape-based spirits are just the ABSOLUTE WORST for photography, and much, much more.

Full disclosure: this conversation is me at my absolute nerdiest and most joyful. Ernie’s work is a delicious collision of some of my favorite ideas to play around with, namely: a particle-based model of the universe, the complex interactions between those particles, and the beautiful emergent phenomena that we filter through our senses and describe with words like “flavor” and “texture” and “art.”

I do hope you’ll take the time to head over to our YouTube channel or our Instagram to see some of the images that we reference in this conversation. Even more than that, I hope you’ll think of The Art of Whisky next time you’re in the market for a gift for someone who loves art, science, or simply a fine dram of something that spent time in a barrel.

Featured Cocktail: The Monkey Gland

Even though we’re dealing with a boozy, contemplative subject matter this episode, I wanted to do a complete 180 for this segment and feature something that’s refreshing, sweet, and a great way to kick off summer. In keeping with that, our featured cocktail is the Monkey Gland. To make it, you’ll need:

1½ oz gin
1½ oz fresh orange juice
1 -2 bar spoons grenadine
1-2 bar spoons simple syrup (1:1)
1-2 bar spoons absinthe

Combine these ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice, shake until the drink is well chilled and properly diluted, then strain into a chilled, stemmed cocktail glass, garnish optionally with an orange twist, and enjoy.

The Monkey Gland is perhaps the least well known of Harry MacElhone’s original (or rumored to be original) cocktails from the 1920’s at his establishment, Harry’s New York Bar in Paris. This list, of course, features the French 75, the Bloody Mary, The Boulevardier and Old Pal, and the Sidecar, but the Monkey Gland, you’ll notice, looks a bit different than these sours and negroni riffs.

The key here is to be comfortable dialing in this beverage to your own taste. Everyone’s going to use a slightly different absinthe, different orange juice, and different grenadine. So if you’re planning on making the Monkey Gland for guests, I’d recommend doing a test run so that you can understand how all of your ingredients will play together in the glass.

And of course, you’re going to get questions about WHY this thing is called the Monkey Gland. I won’t spoil the entire story – because this one gets a little weird – but I will say that it involves some questionable medical procedures designed to cure male impotence and even improve longevity.

Vanishing Spirits: The Art of Whisky with Ernie Button

This episode was made possible with editing and sound design by Samantha Reed, photography and whisky insights courtesy of Ernie Button, and a little bit of interview magic by yours truly. This has been a Modern Bar Cart production, copyright 2022.

This episode is also brought to you by Near Country Provisions. If you live in the Mid-Atlantic and want to enjoy ethically raised (and delicious) meat from local farmers delivered to your door every month, then you need Near Country in your life.

Head over to NearCountry.com and enter the code BARCART when you sign up for your subscription to receive 2 free pounds of bacon or ground beef in your first delivery.

Vanishing Spirits: The Art of Whisky with Ernie Button

Featured Cocktail: The Monkey Gland

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