The New York sour is a standout of the whiskey sour family that dates back to the 19th century. While its core is a fairly classic combination of whiskey, fresh lemon, and sugar, the drink calls for a small pour of red wine to be floated ever so carefully on top of the otherwise mixed drink. This creates a showy red streak that has undoubtedly contributed to the cocktail’s longevity.
While the red wine float is strikingly clear when properly poured, the drink’s origin is a bit murkier. There are often-repeated legends of its birth in Chicago in the 1880s; the combination has sometimes appeared under other names, such as the Continental sour. But when the drink returned from obscurity during the cocktail revival of the aughts, it was called the New York sour, and by 2010 or so the classic cocktail was common enough that one might find a bartender carefully pouring red wine down a bar spoon in mixology joints across the United States.
The New York sour is among the easier places to start trying the tricky move of making layered drinks, because the shaken whiskey combination is much more dense than the wine you’re floating on top. It will still take some practice, though. Slowly, patiently, pour the wine over some object (many recommend the upturned bottom of a bar spoon) to help disperse the liquid over the top of the cocktail. Even when poorly done, the drink tastes good, which is more than I can say for most layered drinks.
Some folks argue about whether the New York sour should be served with an egg white. I believe that the whiskey sour is a formula to be experimented with, so I suggest trying it both ways and making up your own mind. If you’d like to use the egg white, I suggest a dry shake—before you put in any ice, add the egg white to your cocktail shaker with the whiskey, lemon, and simple syrup, shaking vigorously to emulsify before adding the ice and shaking again to chill. (Note that raw egg is not recommended for the elderly, pregnant individuals, or people with weakened immune systems.)
As with the rest of the sour family, you can use this New York sour recipe as a starting point for your own variations. There’s an argument to be made for the rounder, fuller flavors of bourbon here, but I tend to go with a rye whiskey, like Wild Turkey or New York Distilling’s Ragtime Rye, if only because it’s considered classic. I tend to like bolder red wines in this drink—like Carmenère, Cabernet, or Zinfandel—but you should open something that you’re going to want to sip throughout the rest of your evening.