Today’s cocktail is one I have been meaning to make for a long time, and I’m so very glad that I finally did. The New York Sour is an easy, impressive, and absolutely delicious drink. This classic variation on a Whiskey Sour is topped with a float of fruity red wine for an impressive layered effect. It looks like something that requires the utmost skill and care, but all you need is a spoon and a relatively steady hand. You might even be able to get away with it if you don’t have either of those things. The wine floats quite naturally above the rest of the cocktail. Just give it a good stir before you take a sip. It’s one of the tastiest drinks I’ve had in a while, and if you’ve never made one, you’re missing out!
Some notes on the recipe I chose: first, as with a classic Whiskey Sour, some recipes for the New York Sour will also include egg whites, which will give the drink a smoother texture and add some foam to the top. I opted to leave them out to make the recipe more accessible. But if you like an egg white cocktail, try adding 1/2 oz to the mixture before you shake it, and consider a dry shake or reverse dry shake.
Second, most recipes I found only call for 1/4 to 1/2 oz. of red wine on top of the drink. And yet they all prominently feature photos of cocktails that clearly contain more than that. A full ounce of wine gives a much more satisfying layer of red on the top of the drink, and it tastes amazing.
History: As I started looking into the New York Sour’s history, I was dismayed to find that there is very little about it out there. Most websites I usually rely on for cocktail history repeated the same handful of brief facts without citations. I must thank Matt Stuart, @craftandcompound, and Chris Kiertz for responding when I put out a call for help on Instagram. It seems that the information I found comes from David Wondrich’s excellent book Imbibe!. Since the passage on the New York Sour is brief and David Wondrich’s writing is always delightful, I’ll quote it here in full:
One notable innovation was to cap a Whiskey Sour with a float of red wine, to give it what one Chicago bartender called “the claret ‘snap'” (in the language of the saloon, red wine was always called “claret,” no matter how distant its origins from the sunlit banks of the Gironde.) This worthy, who was interviewed in 1883, claimed ownership over this bit of fanciness, adding that “men who drink our sours expect a claret at every bar, and when it is not put in they ask for it. It’s getting circulated now, and other places are adopting our flourish.” (One is entitled to be skeptical, as he claimed to have invented the Manhattan as well, but there does exist another description of a Chicago bartender assembling a Whiskey Sour that same year, and lo and behold, he tops it off with claret, too.) Whoever invented it, this Continental Sour, Southern Whiskey Sour, or – the name it finally settled on after Prohibition – New York Sour was broadly popular. As our Chicago barkeep noted, “the claret makes the drink look well and gives it a better taste.” (Imbibe! pg. 116)
A footnote states that the name “New York Sour” first appears in print in the Boston Herald in 1885, and that the earliest printed recipe comes from the 1913 edition of The Cocktail Book (which was published in Boston). However, Chris found a recipe for a “Whiskey Sour, New York Style” in Louis’ Mixed Drinks from 1906. Perhaps Wondrich thought that didn’t quite count.
Whatever its exact history, it’s clear that people have enjoyed a New York Sour for a long time, and I don’t see why they’d stop anytime soon.
New York Sour
2 oz. rye whiskey
1 oz. lemon juice
1 oz. simple syrup
1 oz. fruity red wine such as Malbec
Combine whiskey, lemon, and simple syrup in a shaker with ice and shake until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass filled with ice (I prefer smaller pieces, to give the top of the drink a more uniform look). Pour the red wine slowly into the drink over the back of a spoon to create the layered effect.