American · Cocktail
New York Sour
A whiskey sour with half an ounce of dry red wine floated on top. That's the whole difference, and it turns a familiar drink into something people ask about.
Photo: Jeferson santos / Pexels
Ingredients
- 2 oz Maker's Mark bourbon
- 0.75 oz fresh lemon juice
- 0.75 oz simple syrup
- 0.5 oz dry red wine, to float
- Lemon peel, to garnish
Method
- Shake the bourbon, lemon juice and simple syrup hard with ice for ten seconds.
- Strain over fresh ice into a rocks glass. Leave a little room at the top.
- Hold a spoon upside down just above the surface and pour the red wine slowly onto the back of it. It should settle in a layer rather than sink.
- Twist a strip of lemon peel over the glass and rest it on the rim. Hand it over without stirring and let them do that.
The one thing that matters
The float is easier than it looks. Rest a spoon upside down just above the surface and pour onto the back of it, slowly. If you rush it the wine sinks and you've made a murky whiskey sour, which still tastes fine.
About this drink
Build the sour first: two ounces of bourbon, three quarters of an ounce of lemon juice, three quarters of an ounce of simple syrup, shaken and poured over ice. Then pour the wine slowly over the back of a spoon so it sits in a dark red layer across the surface instead of mixing in.
It looks like a sunset in a glass and it takes about ten extra seconds.
The wine isn't decoration. As you drink, it comes through in the first mouthful and the tannin cuts across the sweetness underneath it. The drink changes as you go down the glass, which is the part nobody expects.
Use a dry red with some body. A Cabernet or a Malbec works; something jammy and sweet turns the whole thing into cough syrup. This is also a genuinely good use for the last third of a bottle left over from dinner, which is rare among cocktails.
Despite the name it probably came from Chicago in the 1880s, where it was called a Continental Sour. New York got the credit, as New York does.
Serve it after dinner, or with steak, or with anything roasted.
