Have you started thinking about what type of alcohol you want to serve at your wedding? Consider a signature cocktail. And if you're a fan of whiskey, I have the perfect brand for you: Fortuitous Union, a blend of rye whiskey and rum that's new to the spirits market and aptly named for your own fortuitous union.
There are a couple of great reasons to offer a signature cocktail at your wedding.
1) It gives you yet another opportunity to inject your personality into your wedding. Maybe it's a drink you ordered on your first date. Or it's what you drank when you got engaged. Maybe, like one client of mine, your pet Dachshund is the light of your life and you want to serve a drink called The Dachshund at your wedding.
2) Offering one or two signature cocktails instead of a full open bar can save you a lot of money in bar costs. Stocking a full bar is an expensive proposition. If the bar only needs to provide one or two liquors instead of nine or ten, it saves you money. Plus, if the bar staff are only making two types of drinks all night, service is faster, which means your guests spend more time dancing and less time standing in line.
When going the signature cocktail route, it's generally best to offer two options. You can, but aren't required to, call them the Bride's Cocktail and the Groom's Cocktail. I recommend one made with a clear spirit (gin, vodka or tequila blanco) and one with a brown spirit (whiskey or rum). Which brings us back to Fortuitous Union.
Fortuitous Union was accidentally created when a group of friends with some 12-year-old rum wanted to finish the rum in barrels that formerly held bourbon. The warehouse handling the finishing process put the finished rum into what they thought was an empty holding tank. Turns out the holding tank had 5-year-old rye whiskey inside. Whoops!
But it turned out to be a delicious mistake. Fortuitous Union has notes of butterscotch, cinnamon, clove, and coffee on the nose. The palate opens with oak, vanilla, maple syrup, and a hint of citrus. It finishes with a bit of toasted almond, vanilla, and tea leaf.
It's perfect sipped neat or on the rock (one large ice cube, rather than several normal ice cubes) and makes great cocktails as well. Use it wherever you might normally use whiskey: in an Old-Fashioned, Manhattan, or mixed with ginger beer. Here are a few cocktail ideas from Liquor.com.
At the moment, Fortuitous Union is only available in Kentucky and Illinois. Retail price is around $65. The originally intended pure rum product will be released later in 2018. Let me know if you manage to get your hands on some and serve it at your wedding!
Note: This is not a sponsored post, but I happen to be close friends with one of the founders of the Fortuitous Union brand.