Scotch, the new bitters of the cocktailian set

Scotch is a difficult base to work with when you're messing around behind the bar, but if you introduce scotch to the right partners it can prove to be a very sturdy host in a cocktail shaker.

It's important, though, to be specific when it comes to which brand of scotch you're playing with.

I'm a big fan of ultra-smoky, intensely peaty scotches and, as I've mentioned before, I've started to see some of these bottlings - Laphroaig or Ardbeg, for instance - called for in new cocktail formulas. Creative bartenders have cottoned on to the notion that if these babies are used judiciously, they can add multidimensional nuances to a drink, without taking over the whole glass.

Scotch, it seems, has become the new bitters of the cocktailian set.

Jason Littrell, a New York bartender who works at Dram, a hip bar in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood, and at Death & Co., a Lower East Side speakeasy, calls for just 1/4 ounce of Laphroaig in his North Garden cocktail. It rides shotgun alongside 1 1/2 ounces of applejack, 3/4 ounce of Buffalo Trace bourbon, a dash of Angostura bitters and a teaspoon of a demerara sugar syrup that he makes using 2 parts sugar to 1 part water.

"[The drink] is basically an Applejack old-fashioned," says Jason. "It's got enough light peat that it is there, but doesn't take over the apples. The wood from the bourbon gives it class, but the applejack is the real star of the show. Demerara lends texture and binds the flavors, while the Angostura pulls the whole thing together."

When bartenders wax lyrical like this, and when their cocktail turns out to be exactly the kind of drink they're describing, then we know that we've got some seriously creative people behind bar.

The recipe I'm highlighting this week comes from another New York bartender, Matt Piacentini. He plies his trade at Manhattan's Inoteca Liquori (323 Third Ave., near 24th Street) owned by Jason and Joe Denton, nephews of San Francisco's Harry Denton; and Eric Kleinman, a chef who cites Pizza Antica's Gordon Drysdale as a mentor.

Matt's Golden Dog cocktail calls for Talisker, a wonderfully peaty, salty dram from the Isle of Skye, as a base. Take this recipe to more or less any decent cocktail bar in the city, and chances are they'll have the ingredients to make a Golden Dog for you. You won't be disappointed - this is one very complex potion.

Gary Regan is the author of "The Joy of Mixology" and other books. E-mail him at wine@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page J - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle