An appointment with the Cocktail Contessa
Settle in as we discover the story behind the title
If you happen to run into Heather Wibbels when you are out and about and she knows you are a Bourbon drinker, don’t be surprised if she reaches into her bag, pulls out a little bottle and, says, “Try this and tell me what you think.” Wibbels, aka The Cocktail Contessa, is constantly experimenting with base liquors (mostly Bourbon and rye), mixers, spices, bitters, and garnishes. But by her own admission, she actually came to cocktail making backwards.
She grew up in Jeffersonville, Indiana, directly across the Ohio River, and only five minutes’ drive across the bridge, from Louisville, Kentucky. Even with that close proximity to a Bourbon-centric city, she didn’t give a lot of thought to the spirit growing up. But she did find out from her grandfather that he thought he noticed her grandmother, “Because he liked the way she drank her whiskey.” Neat.
Coincidentally, neat is how Wibbels began her appreciation of Bourbon.
After undergraduate years at Lexington’s Transylvania University and then receiving her masters at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, she stayed in the Nashville area for the better part of two decades before moving back to Louisville in 2011. She discovered that in her new hometown, “Bourbon was a very big deal.”
Thinking she should learn something about a subject so integral to the local culture, she recruited her best friend from high school and started taking distillery tours on Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail. Wibbels was soon hooked on the history, not to mention the flavors, of Bourbon. At which point she discovered Bourbon Women.
That organization was newly formed as a place for Bourbon-curious women to explore everything about the spirit. “They were this really cool group. You learned about Bourbon history and about the industry and
you got to drink a cocktail while you did it.”
Still, Wibbels usually took her Bourbon neat, until she had a palate and mindset-altering experience at a Louisville restaurant on the city’s Urban Bourbon Trail.
She and her husband Brooks were having dinner at the Village Anchor and she ordered a Manhattan. She was immediately struck by the interplay of flavors and asked the bartender how it had been made. He told her he’d used Antica Formula sweet vermouth.
“You get the full blast of the whiskey. And then you get the little subtle sour notes from the vermouth and the sweetness, then all the botanicals and herbs [with the bitters],” explained Wibbels.
The Manhattan became her Friday night at-home cocktail and she played around with using different vermouths and bitters. For the first few years of Wibbels’ cocktail exploration, husband Brooks was tolerant, but not partaking. “He just wasn’t a Bourbon drinker at all.”
But preceding another dinner at the Village Anchor, Wibbels ordered an Old Fashioned and he decided to try a sip. “That’s when I lost my designated driver.”
Brooks became her taste tester and an enthusiastic Bourbon shopper. Then came the Bourbon Women Association’s Not-your-pink Drink cocktail contest.
Wibbels entered the amateur division of the 2015 contest with The French Quarter Manhattan. She won. In fact, she won the next two years in a row, too. The Bourbon Women judging panel decided that if any other entrants were to have a sporting chance, they needed to take Wibbels out of the competition and put her in charge of the contest. That helped to launch a new career for Wibbels.
She was invited to make a couple of batched cocktails for the gathering, and when she arrived her host announced, “The Cocktail Contessa is here!”
She was immediately struck by the interplay of flavors...
The name stuck. Wibbels uses it for her website, cocktailcontessa.com, and sends a weekly e-newsletter to subscribers detailing different cocktails (most her own creations) and their histories. She is more involved with Bourbon Women than ever and was recently asked by the organization to author a cocktail book to celebrate its first decade – the book will be published early next year – and she was elected as Bourbon Women board chair for 2021-22.
Looking to the future, the Cocktail Contessa would like to present more mixology classes, especially once in-person gatherings can happen again. Working with specific spirits brands to customize cocktails for them is also an ambition. Whatever opportunities arise, she’ll bring boundless enthusiasm to them.
“Drinking cocktails is like [enjoying] food. It’s a consumption experience, like a great appetizer or a great meal. It combines its various elements in a cohesive way. You can give your experience, your sense memory, to another person through the cocktail you like.”
Wibbels doesn’t just experiment with different mixers, bitters, and garnishes. She also pays attention to how the base spirit interacts with those other elements. Here, she offers some tasting notes of different Bourbons as a guide to how they might affect the flavors in her the award-winning French Quarter. Then just in time for summer, is the recipe for her refreshing summery Blueberry Rhubarb Smash.
Evan Williams Single Barrel (traditional Bourbon mash bill): This lower-proof Bourbon kept the cocktail sweeter, and overall, married the flavors in a way that kept both discernible.
Woodford Double Oaked (barrelfinished): This Bourbon made the cocktail drier on the palate and reminded me of a Perfect Manhattan with both sweet and dry vermouth. The chocolate notes and nut notes were less prevalent than with the Evan Williams, but baking spices came to the front here. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and toffee notes make the cocktail more appealing to someone who wants more complexity, especially fans of a Perfect Manhattan.
Wilderness Trail Single Barrel (wheated): This wheated whiskey made the nut notes explode. Cinnamon and chocolate notes both came to the front as well. This expression clocked in at 108 proof, so the Bourbon had the heat to cut through the pecan whiskey. On the nose, this reminds
me of cinnamon rolls and toasted pecans; in flavor, it’s a classic slice of Bourbon pecan pie.
FRENCH QUARTER MANHATTAN
2 oz Bourbon
1 oz Rivulet liqueur
3 dashes chocolate bitters
Garnish: praline, toasted spiced pecan, or cocktail cherry
Combine ingredients in a mixing glass and fill with ice. Stir until well chilled and strain into a chilled coupe or martini glass. Garnish with a praline or toasted pecans if you have them and a cherry if you don’t.
BLUEBERRY RHUBARB SMASH
10-12 blueberries
1 oz rhubarb syrup*
1/2 medium lemon (quartered)
4 large mint leaves
2 oz rye whiskey
1/2 oz blueberry syrup
Garnish: rhubarb ribbon, mint sprig, fresh blueberries
Combine blueberries, blueberry syrup, and rhubarb syrup in a shaking tin with lemon. Muddle well until the juice is expressed from the blueberries and lemon. Add the mint, leaves torn in half, and muddle just a few times. Add whiskey, fill with ice and shake for 10-12 seconds. Double strain into a rocks glass filled with ice and garnish with blueberries, rhubarb ribbon and mint sprig.
*RHUBARB SYRUP
2 c chopped rhubarb 1 c sugar
1 c water
Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn down and let simmer for at least 20 minutes, or until the rhubarb breaks down and becomes mushy. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve to get as much of the rhubarb solids out as possible. Keeps in the fridge for two to three weeks.