Drink Piece: The New York Sour

A few weeks ago, I met up with some friends for dinner at Henry’s End, a New American neighborhood staple in Brooklyn Heights, and almost immediately eyeballed the New York Sour on their cocktail list. It was as if it was calling out to me, “Andrew, you like sours, right? You like red wine, right? Well, guess what, buddy?!”

Much like Rick Dalton, I’ve been known to appreciate a good Whiskey Sour. I seem to (barely) recall a night many years back, my friends and I cozied up at a karaoke bar on the Lower East Side, booked a private room, and literally ordered trays of the stuff. When I speak of the heartburn the next morning, friends, good gracious was that rough. That night ended, after I’d had at least eight damn whiskey sours, when the staff told us we’d drank right past last call and they were closing. If only I was mixing drinks for myself at home back then!

My interest in cocktails and cocktail making started long before the Pandy, but during lockdown I really thought to invest in better cocktail-making equipment and even began digging into that fantastic guide, The Essential New York Times Book of Cocktails. I cannot recommend it enough, especially if you’re looking for not only recipes, but some fantastic bits of New York booze history. Stoked for that second edition.

Anyway, the New York Sour. Henry’s End made it using Old Overholt Rye and an unnamed cabernet for the float. I’m a fan of Old Overholt, but it’s not one of my go-to ryes—I usually favor rye over bourbon, by the way. On top of the sour was the cab float, and I wonder if cab was the right call here? I have seen this cocktail listed as being made with both dry or sweet reds, but I’m of the mind you should go sweet. There’s something about using a dry red that’s not as much fun. The cab had a really, really full body (as cabs tend to possess, such is the glory of cabs), but it was super-dry and it wound up muting the drink a bit.

When I first went to recreate the cocktail at home, I was bummed to not be able to find a recipe in the aforementioned New York Times cocktail compendium. A quick glance over at the Wikipedia page for the IBA official cocktail list puts the drink under the “New Era” section, so it checks that my NYT book, which leans closer toward Algonquin Round Table-era vibes, wouldn’t have it. A bit of googling led me to a Bon Appétit recipe that I wound up using as a jumping off point.

In this recipe, from Mary-Frances Heck (great name), it recommends using a Shiraz or a Malbec. The odd part about this particular recipe is that before you get to the float, it instructs you to shake the rye with the lemon juice and simple syrup. I cocked an eyebrow at this only because with the New York version of the sour, you’re not using egg white—generally found in a Boston Sour, by the way, but not in, as many assume, a traditional Whiskey Sour. Considering I wasn’t using a dry shake to mix egg white into the drink, I decided to stir my cocktail and avoid the whiskey foam, making room for the float.

For my inaugural preparation of this delicious concoction, I used whatever whiskey I had in my decanter, which in this case was Hudson Whiskey’s Do the Rye Thing. Two parts of that magic elixir, stirred together with one part lemon juice and one part simple syrup, and bing, bang, boom. Nothing to it. I poured the mix into my tumbler and then made a move for the red wine.

Now, to know me is to understand that there’s a lot of wine in the house at all times. Wine selection, like all drinks, is influenced by food pairings, weather, days of the week, and of course mood, so we always keep a lot of wine on-hand to make sure all our bases are covered. It was in the selection of the float wine that I decided to veer off course. And why not? Part of the fun of cocktail making at home is experimenting and tweaking recipes to get them more in tune with your personal taste.

In this case, I ditched Bon Appétit’s suggestion of using a Shiraz or Malbec and opted to use Angelo Negro’s Vino Rosso 2020 instead. It’s a drier Brachetto, but still packs that punch of fruit and slight sweetness, though not as sugary as a traditional Brachetto (more on that another time). The Vino Rosso brought just the right amount of pizzazz I was hoping to add to this cocktail!

After drizzling a full ounce onto the drink (which admittedly was just a skosh too much, as you can see in the picture up top), and using the rounded side of a spoon to do so, allowing the wine to land gently before evenly falling over the top of the cocktail, I took a sip and instantly realized I had my drink of the summer! (It’s also the Summer of Chilled Reds, so this is win-win, folks.)

The New York Sour is super easy to put together, which means you should shell out a little more for all your favorite elements since you won’t waste a ton of booze trying to perfect it. Let me know if you try this one out and what you use! Get at me on Twitter — @jupin — and report back on the deliciousness!

Cheers!