Scotch, Sherry, and Concord Cocktail Recipe

Concord grape season is fleeting, but there’s nothing small about the distinctive taste of these native grapes. To capture the season in a glass, I came up with three cocktails featuring this special grape. 

With alternating smoky, nutty, and jammy notes, this cocktail plays up the complexity of the Concords' flavor. It features a Concord grape syrup, which is bold enough to stand up to the base of blended Scotch. Dry oloroso sherry, which has a nutty richness, brings everything together. The result is a bit of a confounding cocktail: three assertive flavors that marry amazingly well. Don't tell the others, but this cocktail is a new favorite of mine.

Have a bounty of Concords? Try this vibrant-hued autumn French 75, or this amaro grape cocktail.

I had big dreams of making a Concord grape syrup with no added water. Grapes have plenty of juice, I figured, but those big seeds and tough skins also have a ton of pectin, the stuff that makes jellies gel. Even after reducing the amount of sugar in the syrup and cooking it over really low heat, I got a very nice concord grape jelly.

So, the final recipe does have a bit of water, but thanks to the bold, musky flavor of the Concords it is still mighty full-flavored. Many Concord recipes call for separating the skins of the grapes from the flesh (Concords are a "slip-skin" variety, which means the skins slide easily off of the flesh). To avoid that step here, reduce the cooking time, and still get jammy flavor, the grapes take a quick whir in the blender first to chop up the skins a bit and break down the flesh.