Inside Gleneagles American Bar new menu - and why their Rob Roy cocktails aren't made with whisky
The iconic American Bar in the Gleneagles hotel has recently changed its cocktail menu. Rosalind Erskine visited to find out more and try an old classic - with a twist.
It’s not often you visit a bar and end up learning something new, but that’s exactly what happened when I went to the American Bar in the Gleneagles hotel earlier this month.
The bar, which - no matter how many times you visit - always feels like a special place, has launched a new cocktail menu, the Rose Compendium. There are 19 drinks inspired by the rose family, including the strawberry.
Yep, unbeknownst to me - and, for a time, the bar staff - the strawberry is not strictly speaking a berry. Head of bars at the hotel, Michele Mariotti, explained it was the former menu - the award winning Book of Berries - and the strawberry that led to the creation of this new menu.
He said: “We wanted to have a continuity between menus and we’d had strawberry in the Book of Berries, but then realised it was part of the rose family. This helped inspire what was called the Book of Roses, but became the Rose Compendium, which we think would sit on a bookshelf next to the Book of Berries.”
While there’s a range of amazing looking cocktails in this stunning little illustrated book, the Barley cocktail is the signature. It is a bold reimagining of one of the most iconic Scotch whisky cocktails, the Rob Roy.
While Barley intentionally deviates from the rose family theme, it cleverly continues the American Bar’s tradition of incorporating deliberate “mistakes” as a nod to the encyclopedic references that inspire their menus.
The team wanted to create their own perfect, dry and sweet Rob Roy cocktails and have the vermouth, which normally takes centre stage in this classic drink, take a back seat. Each drink has been made in collaboration with Glenturret distillery and Buck and Birch, which created a Scottish vermouth made with rose hips for the cocktail. But only one drink - the perfect Rob Roy - has whisky in it.
The sweet highlights the rich, fruity notes of a 38-year-old Port Pipe malt, which at less than 40 per cent ABV - it sits at 37.5 per cent ABV - means it cannot be called a whisky. The dry Rob Roy emphasises the fresh citrus and mineral qualities of a six-month-old spirit made from bright and grassy malted barley. At this young age, it is amazingly delicious and rounded, but it also legally cannot be called a whisky.
The perfect Rob Roy strikes a harmonious balance with a 14-year-old American Oak sherry cask whisky, offering fruitiness and bright citrus. Other notable cocktails include The Smoked Cherry, a modern twist on the classic Paloma and the Espresso Martini.
This attention to detail extends to the presentation. Glasses are often made bespoke for the bar, such as the wine/Glencairn style Rob Roy glass, or hand painted by Andrea of the bar team.
Names in the Rose Compendium also come from names of roses bred by the National Rose Society. The menu highlights nine core ingredients of the rose family — apple, pear, quince, cherry, peach, plum, strawberry, blackberry and almond — showcased in two iterations.
One celebrates components from Gleneagles’ eco-systems, repurposing kitchen ingredients to minimise waste. The other is hyperlocal, using Scottish flora to craft a variety of rose-based ingredients made by suppliers such as Cairn o’ Mohr and their strawberry wine, Allan’s chilli and apple jams, and Buck & Birch and their specially made vermouth for the Rob Roy drinks.
The apple section of the menu includes Blossom Breeze, which blends a soda made from discarded cores and peels, with Hendrick’s Gin for a light, refreshing sip. Orchard Sap is a whisky-based creation, marrying The Macallan 12-Year-Old Double Cask with exceptional apple cider from Cairn o’ Mohr, offering the perfect balance of sweet and tart.
Mr Mariotti said: "The Rose Compendium is a true labour of love, blending tradition, creativity, sustainability and a deep respect for nature. Partnering with local producers has been such a rewarding experience, allowing us to support the incredible craftsmanship in our community while creating something truly special for guests. I am incredibly proud of how this menu reflects Gleneagles' commitment to eco-conscious practices whilst pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the world of cocktails."
The menu itself, which looks like a slim, cloth-bound novel from the dusty shelves of a old school library, is a Quinell Nubuk book designed to echo a botanist’s journal, which they would have spent hours pouring over in their potting sheds. Wrapped in a clay-coloured cover and offering a detailed approach, the menu guides guests through each drink with the story of the ingredients, hand-annotated notes, the techniques used, illustrations, glassware details and an extensive glossary to explain any complex or unusual terms.
Mr Mariotti said creating these highly detailed menus takes “a really long time”, but they are already working on the next menu. He said: “The Rose Compendium features nine members of the rose family and each page is dedicated to one of them, with each rose featuring two different iterations of a drink. The thing that takes the longest time (in development) is the external collaborations. Whether that’s a glass design or sourcing ingredients from a producer, it takes time to identify these and there’s a lot of back and forth. A new menu can take up to a year and a half.”
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