Lynnette Marrero’s Barracuda Cocktail Recipe

Mixologist Lynnette Marrero credits fellow bartender Sam Ross’s bourbon-and amaro-inflected Paper Plane cocktail as a wonderful equal-parts template from which to take inspiration when crafting cocktails for appetizers that might appear on a charcuterie and cheese board. Her Barracuda cocktail, created in conjunction with Jessica Gonzalez, harnesses the salinity and nuttiness of sherry, a fortified wine produced in the southwest of Spain made from the Palomino, Muscat, or Pedro Ximénez grapes, to match the savory quality of pre-dinner bites—a particular strength of sherry cocktails like the citrusy Sherry Cobbler, or the Bamboo, which combines dry sherry and dry vermouth with two crowning aromatics: orange bitters and Angostura bitters.

Sherry, like vermouth, is fortified with brandy and typically clocks in at around 15 to 18 percent alcohol by volume, or ABV. Depending on the style and region, Spanish sherries like Fino or Manzanilla sherry can exhibit distinctly vegetal qualities reminiscent of green olives, while others like Oloroso or Amontillado sherry are on the sweeter side of savory, with hints of tobacco smoke and raisin.