A Cocktail Recipe for Peyton Manning's New Bourbon

Peyton Manning was unanimously elected to the Broncos' Ring of Fame last week, joining such Denver football legends as Karl Mecklenburg, Steve Atwater and John Elway. Manning played his last four seasons with the team, capping off his time on the field in the Mile High with a Super Bowl win.

This week, Manning (who still resides in Denver) is celebrating a different kind of win: the Colorado release of his Sweetens Cove Tennessee Bourbon Whiskey. The bourbon brand, which Manning co-owns with retired tennis champ Andy Roddick and a group of investors, is named after and was a spinoff project of the nine-hole Tennessee golf course that the group purchased in 2019.

The spirit blended by Master Distiller Marianne Eaves is the second release for Sweetens Cove. A bottle will run you around $200 (the suggested retail price) and is available now in the Denver area at all major liquor stores, including Molly’s Spirits, Argonaut and Applejack.

The former Broncos quarterback is hosting an industry happy hour and whiskey tasting as part of the Colorado launch today, June 16, at Guard and Grace. Also in attendance at the event will be another big Denver player, Sean Kenyon.

Kenyon is the man behind the award-winning bar Williams & Graham, which kicked off Denver's obsession with cocktails bars when it opened a decade ago. He has since opened Occidental and American Bonded, and is a master of crafting cocktails and also explaining bartending etiquette, as evidenced by his series of columns for Westword.

In honor of Manning's new bourbon release, Kenyon has created the ultimate Sweetens Cove cocktail — inspired, of course, by one of Manning's most notable corporate spokesman gigs, for Papa John's. Here it is:

The Meat Lover’s Manhattan

2 ounces sausage, pepperoni, meatball and bacon infused Sweetens Cove Bourbon
1 ounce Martini & Rossi Rosso Vermouth (it's heavy on oregano flavor)
3 dashes tomato tincture

Stir and strain; serve in a cocktail or martini glass with a parmesan-crusted rim. Top with basil mozzarella foam and a cherry tomato on a pick.

If anyone actually makes this masterpiece at home, send photos and your review to [email protected].