0.5 oz of Ancho Reyes provides plenty of spice. I could see a cherry garnish with this.

It's a Fred cocktail so by definition should be pretty good - and it is. I had doubts about the volume of Grenadine, but it balances well with the Fernet. However, my initial taste, pre-orange, strongly suggested Campari! Have we discovered the secret recipe?

Thank you for the kind words & cheers! Too much grenadine for flavor or for sweetness? As for flavor, it combined with the sweet vermouth to make a rounder red fruit note that I find in Dubonnet and Byrhh. As for the sweetness, 3 parts dry vermouth to 1 part 1:1 syrup such as grenadine has the same sugar level as blanc vermouth (but just below that of many sweet vermouths), so it works well. I've used that trick to make a "celery blanc vermouth" (3 parts dry vermouth to 1 part celery syrup (1 part celery juice:1 part sugar)) for one menu item at work. Fernet does have citrus elements but usually you can't find them (just like vermouths have citrus elements lurking).