The Giving Tree

This holiday cocktail was born as a cold-weather answer to an old-world classic — "a cold version of a type of mulled wine, from Nordic or Germanic tradition," as its inventor Mike Ryan, head bartender at Sable Kitchen & Bar in Chicago, once described it. The drink borrows the spirit of mulled wine — its warmth, its spice, its wintery character — but recasts it as something crisp and sippable rather than simmered on the stove. The red wine lends a lovely roundness and depth, the rye brings backbone and strength, and the Drambuie rounds it all out with honeyed sweetness and a whisper of spice. Together they land somewhere between a nightcap and an aperitif — a cocktail with just enough weight to feel festive, yet balanced enough to make a natural sipper before dinner.

Ingredients

• 1 oz red wine (Malbec)

• 1 oz rye whiskey (Bulleit)

• 1 oz Drambuie

• Orange bitters (Angostura)

• Orange peel, for garnish

Steps

1. Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass.

2. Add ice and stir until well-chilled and diluted to your liking.

3. Strain into your favorite coupe.

4. Garnish with an orange peel.

Paired With

70% chocolate with Kerala cacao and Mulled Wine from La Folie

We pair The Giving Tree with La Folie's 70% Kerala cacao chocolate, flavored with mulled wine — a natural echo of the cocktail's own inspiration. The mulled wine notes in the chocolate reinforce the drink's red wine and seasonal-spice profile, while the dark cacao steps in to balance the honeyed sweetness of the Drambuie, keeping the pairing from tipping too sweet.