Designed by Castle Hot Springs‘ bar supervisor and tobacconist Russell Greene, The Pickerell is an Old Fashioned-style cocktail invented for and named after Dave Pickerell.
Pickerell was known in the spirits industry as the godfather of whiskey, and played a central role in the growth of Maker’s Mark bourbon, WhistlePig rye whiskey, and the development and success of dozens of small craft distilleries around the U.S. Three months before Pickerell’s untimely death in 2018, Greene presented him with The Pickerell. “If there were one drink to describe Dave, it would be an Old Fashioned,” Greene says.
The Pickerell features WhistlePig 12-year, which blends whiskeys finished in Port pipes, French Sauternes barrels, and Madeira casks, imparting a slightly sweet, caramel, dark-fruit finish to the spirit. The cocktail is rounded out by the generous use of bitters and just a hint of sweetness, courtesy of a bar spoon-full of WhistlePig maple syrup.