This week Woodford Reserve brought their Manhattan Experience to Portland. They’ve been doing these events in many major markets in the States where they get a whole bunch of bartenders together to make their own interpretation of the classic cocktail, the Manhattan.

The Manhattan is an extremely simple drink comprising of only three ingredients: whiskey (usually rye or bourbon), sweet vermouth, and Angostura Bitters. As simple a drink as it is, it’s one of the most commonly massacred drinks. A major mistake many bartenders make with the Manhattan is shaking it. I don’t know how so many bartenders have gotten it into their heads that a Manhattan should be shaken, but it’s one of three drinks that should NEVER be shaken (Martinis, Negronis, and Manhattans). You never want to shake a Manhattan because you can actually cause saponification, which would transform a smooth, sexy drink to a soapy mess (for more on when to shake and when to stir, read our Basics for The Home Bar: The Bar Spoon piece). Bartenders who stir the Manhattan often don’t stir it long enough. With so few ingredients, the key difference between a good Manhattan and a great Manhattan is how well it’s diluted.

For the Woodford Manhattan Experience, local bartenders were challenged with making their own interpretation of the Manhattan. It’s a difficult task considering that the Manhattan is considered somewhat of a “sacred” drink, with only one generally accepted variation: a dry Manhattan, which is made with dry vermouth and garnished with a lemon twist. I was asked to judge this competition which featured seven local bartenders mixing it up for a chance to travel to New York to compete.

Judging a cocktail competition is actually quite difficult as you can evaluate drinks from so many different perspectives. The first thing I always look at when judging a drink is whether or not it is balanced. A truly balanced cocktail is a thing of beauty—all the elements come together as one. It’s amazing to think you can mix strong, sweet, bitter, or sour and get something absolutely delicious. When a drink is shaken or stirred, it’s for more than just mixing and chilling a cocktail, it’s also to add one of the most important ingredients: water. Good bartenders understand this and they are vigilant about exactly how much water gets incorporated into the drink.

From those fundamental building blocks I look at flavors. Do the flavors come together well? You’d be surprised at some of the things bartenders try to throw together. More often than not, competition cocktails are train wrecks as bartenders tend to over think and over complicate their drinks. Sometimes, though, interesting things emerge from competitions.

For the Woodford Manhattan Experience, some interesting flavors were brought into the drink including clove, apple, ginger, and even verjus blanc (which is white grape juice made from unripe wine grapes). The winner of the competition was a cocktail called the Big Apple Ginger which infused Woodford Reserve with apple and ginger, and adding sparkling apple cider to the mix—and yes, it was stirred.