Cocktail · Medium strength
New York Sour
A whiskey sour wearing a red wine float like a velvet cape.
How to order it: Dry red floated over the back of a spoon. Drink through the layers, don't stir.
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The recipe
- 2 oz bourbon or rye
- 1 oz lemon juice
- ¾ oz simple syrup
- Shake; rocks
- Float ½ oz dry red wine
The story
The New York Sour is a nineteenth-century idea wearing a modern name: take a whiskey sour, then float dry red wine across the top so it drinks in layers, fruit and tannin giving way to citrus and bourbon. Versions appeared in the 1880s under various aliases, including the Continental Sour and Southern Whiskey Sour, and some accounts place its origins in Chicago rather than the city it is now named for; the trail is genuinely murky. The claret float was a flourish of the era's showman bartenders. It endures because it is the rare garnish that changes the drink, a sunset you can sip in order.
Classic variation
The New York Sour is a riff on a classic. Meet the original:
Adjacent pours