New York Sour
A whiskey sour with a layer of red wine floated on top — two colours, and a dry, fruity finish.
- Difficulty
- medium
- Prep time
- 4 min
- Strength
- 15.6% ABV
- Glassware
- Rocks glass
- Base
- whisky
- Serves
- 1
Ingredients
- Bourbon or rye whisky50ml
- Fresh lemon juice25ml
- Simple syrup20ml
- Egg whiteoptional15ml
Half an egg white, for texture
- Dry red wine20ml
A fruity, dry red such as Malbec or Shiraz
Garnish: Lemon twist (optional)
Method
- Fill a rocks glass with ice.
- Add the whisky, lemon juice, simple syrup and egg white, if using, to a shaker. If you use egg white, shake without ice first for 10 seconds.
- Add ice and shake hard until cold.
- Strain into the rocks glass over fresh ice.
- Hold a bar spoon upside down just above the surface and pour the wine slowly over its back so it settles on top as a layer.
Compared with the IBA specification
The International Bartenders Association lists this drink among its New Era. Its specification is a standard for training and competition — one reference, not the only right way to make the drink.
CocktailHQ
- 50ml bourbon or rye whisky
- 25ml fresh lemon juice
- 20ml simple syrup
- 15ml egg white (optional)
- 20ml dry red wine
IBA
- 60 ml Rye Whiskey or Bourbon
- 22.5 ml Simple syrup
- 30 ml Fresh lemon juice
- Few Drops of Egg White
- 15 ml Red wine (Shiraz or Malbech)
IBA ingredients as published at iba-world.com, retrieved 29 October 2026.
Allergen information
Contains an ingredient commonly associated with:
- Eggs (egg white, optional)
- Sulphur dioxide and sulphites — usually (dry red wine)
Products vary, and this describes ingredients rather than the bottles you use — check every label. It is not a guarantee that a drink is suitable for anyone with an allergy. How this is worked out
Your version
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Equipment
Don't have everything? Here's what works instead.
Bar spoon
Household swap: The back of a teaspoon.
Glass and ice
Standard cubes, filled to the top
A short drink with citrus or juice is drunk faster and is balanced to take some extra dilution, so standard cubes are right.
A large cube would keep it a little stronger for longer.
About 164ml once mixed
The recipe's rocks glass is typically 250–350ml.
- Workable:
- highball glass, wine glass
- Unsuitable:
- coupe glass, nick & nora glass, martini glass, champagne flute
Needs a glass of about 274–329ml brimful.
How this is worked out
- A drink with no ice needs a little of the glass left empty — about a tenth — so it can be carried without spilling and has room for aroma.
- Filled to the top with cubes or packed crushed ice, roughly half to three-fifths of a glass is left for the drink.
- A drink built in the glass dilutes from the ice already there, so its melt water is not added on top.
- One large cube takes up roughly 65–125ml, from a sphere to a 5cm cube.
- Glass capacities are brimful and vary by maker — your own glass, measured with water, is the figure to trust.
Missing an ingredient?
Each swap below says what it changes and how to correct for it, so you can decide whether you are making this drink or a neighbouring one.
Instead of Red Wine
Best substitute: Tawny Port
This is the modifier in this drink.
Quantity: Use 15ml
Flavour impact: Sweeter and nuttier, and it sinks more readily because it is denser.
What changes
Expect more sweetness, less bitterness and more strength. Still a good drink, and a slightly different one.
- Sweetness ↑
- The drink will land sweeter, which also makes it read as less sharp and slightly heavier even though nothing else changed.
- Bitterness ↓
- Losing bitterness makes the drink rounder and more approachable, and takes away the structure that stopped it tasting like squash.
- Strength ↑
- Tawny Port is 20% ABV against 13%. A stronger bottle raises the alcohol in the finished drink and, with it, the perceived dryness and heat.
- Character
- you lose fruity, tannic, dry-to-medium and earthy, and you gain nutty, dried fruit, caramel and sweet. Numbers can't see this: two ingredients can be identically sour and still smell nothing alike.
To correct for it
- Cut the syrup or sugar back — start by halving it and taste before adding any back.
- A dash of bitters restores some of the backbone without changing anything else.
- Pour a little less, or add slightly more dilution, to land where the recipe intended.
ExperimentalShifts the drink
Make it better
- Pour the wine slowly and from low down. Poured fast, it sinks and you get a pink sour instead of a layer.
- Use a fruity, dry red. A heavily oaked or very tannic wine makes the top layer harsh.
- Egg white is optional, but its foam gives the wine something to rest on and makes the layer easier.
- Shake hard for 12-15 seconds with plenty of ice — a proper shake chills and dilutes the drink in one step.
- Use freshly squeezed citrus juice rather than bottled — the aromatic oils fade fast once juiced, so squeeze just before making the drink.
- Express the citrus peel by pinching it, skin-side down, over the drink before dropping it in — this releases aromatic oils across the surface.
- Use one large ice cube rather than several small ones — it dilutes more slowly and keeps the drink from turning watery.
Rescue this drink
- The wine sank
- Pour more slowly, over the back of a spoon held just above the drink.
- Harsh top layer
- The wine is too tannic or oaky. Use a juicier, younger red.
- Too sweet underneath
- Cut the syrup to 15ml; the wine on top is drier than it looks.
- Tastes thin, with no weight to itgeneral guidance
- A short shaken drink with nothing rich in it depends on sugar and dilution for body. Try a slightly richer syrup — two parts sugar to one of water rather than equal parts — which adds weight without adding much more sweetness. Egg white or aquafaba does the same job more dramatically, and turns it into a sour.
- Texture looks split or curdledgeneral guidance
- This usually happens when citrus is added too fast to dairy, or the drink sat too long before serving. Add citrus gradually while stirring next time — a split drink often can't be fully recovered once it happens.
- Served too warmgeneral guidance
- Chill the glass, ice and every ingredient ahead of time — a warm pour is the fastest way to lose a cold drink's balance. For one serving, there's no real fix beyond rebuilding it properly chilled; for a batch, keep everything refrigerated until the moment of serving and add ice last.
Make ahead & storage
Batch the base, finish at serving
Batch the 3 stable components days ahead and add fresh lemon juice when you pour. The egg white is optional and cannot be batched — shake it in per drink if you want the foam.
- Fresh lemon juice:
- Fresh citrus loses its aroma within hours and turns dull. Squeeze it on the day.
- Egg white:
- Optional, and the foam it makes has to be shaken fresh — skip it for a batched version or shake it in per serving.
Make it lighter
As written, about 2.3 UK units at roughly 15.6% ABV once diluted. 3 of six ways to lighten it work for this recipe. Units are an estimate of what is in the glass, not advice about drinking.
A smaller serveSupportedabout 1.5 units, 15.6% ABV
Every measure at two-thirds. The balance is untouched because the proportions are; the only trade-off is a smaller drink — use a smaller glass so it doesn't look stingy.
- 33ml Bourbon
- 17ml Lemon Juice
- 13ml Simple Syrup
- 13ml Red Wine
A longer serveSupportedsame 2.3 units, 10.7% ABV
Spirit, citrus and sugar topped with soda is how a sour becomes a Collins or a fizz — a well-trodden route. Note: the same alcohol in more liquid — weaker per sip, not fewer units.
- 50ml Bourbon
- 25ml Lemon Juice
- 20ml Simple Syrup
- 20ml Red Wine
- 75ml Soda Water
Give it the spritz treatmentPossible, with a trade-offabout 1.2 units, 7.8% ABV
Sparkling wine for the spirit makes a lighter, French 75-like drink, but it loses the backbone that balanced the citrus — you may want less sugar. Add the fizz last, at the glass.
- 75ml Sparkling Wine
- 25ml Lemon Juice
- 20ml Simple Syrup
- 20ml Red Wine
Not recommended for this drink: reverse the ratio; split the base with a lower-strength modifier; replace part of it with an alcohol-free bottle
- Reverse the ratio. There is no wine-strength modifier — vermouth, sherry or Lillet — to swap measures with.
- Split the base with a lower-strength modifier. The recipe has no wine-strength modifier to move measure into, and choosing one for it would be writing a new drink.
- Replace part of it with an alcohol-free bottle. No bottle in this recipe has an alcohol-free counterpart in the catalogue, and we won't name one we haven't written up.
Or make something lighter by design: Virgin Daiquiri. All lighter drinks
What it tastes like
The taste, and what drives it
off-dry, sharp, light — a sour-structured drink served over ice.
Off-dry
Dry → Sweet
Sweetened enough to take the edge off without reading as a sweet drink.
What drives it: Simple syrup — carries the most sugar into the glass.
Sharp
Soft → Sharp
Properly sharp. This is the axis the drink is built on.
What drives it: Fresh lemon juice — supplies the acidity.
Faintly bitter
Gentle → Bitter
A bitter edge you would only notice if you looked for it.
What drives it: Bourbon or rye whisky — provides the bitterness.
Light
Light → Rich
Light-bodied. It refreshes rather than satisfies, which is usually the intention.
What drives it: Bourbon or rye whisky — adds most of the weight.
Bold
Delicate → Bold
Bold. This drink is the loudest thing on the table.
What drives it: Bourbon or rye whisky — is the most concentrated thing in the glass.
What you smell first
- Citrus peelLeadsBefore the first sip
From Fresh lemon juice, Lemon twist (optional)
- Vanilla
From Bourbon or rye whisky
- Oak
From Bourbon or rye whisky, Dry red wine
- Berry
From Dry red wine
Aromas marked as sitting above the drink reach you before the first sip — skipping that garnish changes the drink more than its size suggests.
How it was worked out
Each reading comes from the recipe's own recorded taste scores combined with what each ingredient contributes, weighted by how much of it is in the glass. Almost everything in this drink has detailed ingredient data behind it.
How balance actually works →If it isn't right
What goes wrong with this drink, and why
Only the faults this particular recipe is actually prone to — open one for the likely cause, the adjustment, and what the adjustment costs you.
It's too sweet
- Likely cause
- Simple syrup is carrying the sugar here, and it is the easiest thing in the drink to over-pour — syrup clings to a jigger and a "splash" is rarely the same twice.
- What to change
- Cut simple syrup by about a third and rebuild. If it is already made, a squeeze of citrus is faster than starting again.
- What that does
- The drink will read sharper as well as less sweet, because the acid stops being balanced.
- The trade-off
- That is usually the intention, but it is a bigger change than it sounds — overshoot and the drink tips into sour.
It's too sour
- Likely cause
- Fresh lemon juice varies more than any other ingredient in the drink. Limes differ by weeks of ripeness, and a sharp one can be half again as acidic as a mild one at the same measure.
- What to change
- Add sweetener a few millilitres at a time rather than diluting — you are correcting a ratio, not a concentration.
- What that does
- Sourness recedes and the drink gains a little weight.
- The trade-off
- Overshoot and you will be reading the too-sweet entry instead. Small additions, tasting between each, are slower but cheaper than a rebuild.
It tastes harsh or hot
- Likely cause
- Almost always under-dilution. Shaking is how this drink gets its water — around 30% of the finished drink — and stopping early leaves alcohol heat that dilution would have rounded off.
- What to change
- Shake hard for the full time with plenty of ice; a short, gentle shake chills a little and dilutes even less.
- What that does
- The heat recedes, the drink tastes rounder, and flavours that were masked by alcohol come forward.
- The trade-off
- Dilution is a target, not a direction: past it the drink goes watery and loses concentration, which is harder to undo than harshness.
It's watery
- Likely cause
- Shaking adds water while it chills, and the two cannot be separated. Wet ice from a freezer door, or small cubes, will over-dilute before the drink is properly cold.
- What to change
- Use bigger, drier, colder ice and stop sooner. Chilling the glass first buys you time you would otherwise spend diluting.
- What that does
- More flavour concentration at the same temperature.
- The trade-off
- Under-dilute instead and the drink will taste harsh — the aim is the right amount of water, not the least.
It doesn't smell of anything
- Likely cause
- The aroma you are missing is probably citrus peel, which sits above the drink rather than in it — skipping or under-expressing the garnish removes it entirely.
- What to change
- Express the peel over the surface with the skin facing the drink, then drop it in. Herbs go in the glass, not on the side.
- What that does
- Aroma arrives before flavour does, so the whole drink reads as more intense without a single measure changing.
- The trade-off
- The oil does land in the drink, though — an over-expressed peel adds a faint bitterness to the first mouthful.
It tastes one-dimensional
- Likely cause
- With 4 components there is nowhere for complexity to hide — a drink this simple is exposed by design, so a dull one is usually a dull ingredient rather than a missing step.
- What to change
- Change the quality of what is there before adding anything new: fresh citrus rather than bottled, a better base bottle, a dash of bitters. Bitters add layers at a scale nothing else matches.
- What that does
- More going on at the same strength and sweetness.
- The trade-off
- Adding a whole extra ingredient instead usually produces a muddier drink rather than a deeper one — and a better bottle costs more.
The foam is thin or collapses
- Likely cause
- Egg white builds foam by trapping air, and ice gets in the way: shaken straight over ice, the drink chills and dilutes before the foam has had a chance to form.
- What to change
- Dry shake first — hard, without ice — then add ice and shake again. Or reverse it: shake with ice, strain the ice out, and dry shake once more for the densest head.
- What that does
- A thicker, longer-lasting head that softens the first sip and carries aroma.
- The trade-off
- Two shakes take longer and a reverse dry shake warms the drink slightly. Any trace of fat — cream, or oil from the shaker — knocks a foam down whatever you do.
There's too much foam
- Likely cause
- A whole egg white is around 30ml, which is a lot of foam for a single drink — the head grows to fill the glass and the drink underneath gets lost.
- What to change
- Measure egg white rather than estimating it: 15–20ml gives a proper head on a single drink. Let an over-foamed drink settle for a moment before garnishing.
- What that does
- A neat head with the drink still the main event.
- The trade-off
- Less foam means a less velvety texture. Measuring half a white also leaves the other half to use within a day or so.
The garnish is all I can taste
- Likely cause
- The lemon twist sits right under your nose, so it arrives before the drink does. Expressed peel oil is intense, and a peel left in keeps releasing it.
- What to change
- Express the peel over the drink, then discard it rather than dropping it in.
- What that does
- The garnish frames the drink rather than replacing it.
- The trade-off
- Too little and the drink loses its first impression — the garnish is doing a real aromatic job here, so ease off rather than leave it out.
The ice melts too quickly
- Likely cause
- Small cubes, cubes straight from a freezer door, or a glass that started warm all melt faster. A glass only half full of ice also melts faster than a full one, because each cube does more of the cooling.
- What to change
- Fill the glass to the top with cold, dry ice, or use one large cube in a short glass. Chill the glass first if you can.
- What that does
- The drink stays at its best for longer before the last third goes thin.
- The trade-off
- More ice in the glass means a little less drink fits, and a large cube chills more slowly at first.
Each drink comes out different
- Likely cause
- With 4 measured components, a few millilitres' drift in each adds up, and a shaker loaded for four chills and dilutes differently from one made for one.
- What to change
- Measure every pour with a jigger, and shake no more than two drinks at a time. Pre-mix bourbon or rye whisky, simple syrup, dry red wine in a bottle beforehand so each round starts from the same base.
- What that does
- The fifth drink of the evening tastes like the first, at the same strength and balance.
- The trade-off
- Smaller batches mean more rounds of shaking or stirring; pre-mixing saves time but only for what keeps.
It tastes flat, dull or like old wine
- Likely cause
- Dry red wine is wine, and once a bottle is opened it starts to oxidise: the fresh, herbal top notes go first and a flat, nutty or sour edge comes in. Nothing else in the drink can put them back.
- What to change
- Taste dry red wine on its own. If it is dull, open a fresh bottle — and keep the next one in the fridge with the cap on, or buy a smaller size.
- What that does
- The drink regains its aroma and tastes brighter, without any change to the spec.
- The trade-off
- A fresh bottle for one drink is a cost; small bottles cost more per millilitre but waste less.
The sweetness is off even though I measured
- Likely cause
- Simple syrup is made at more than one strength. This recipe assumes sugar and water at one to one; a rich two-to-one syrup carries about half as much sugar again in the same measure, and a shop-bought one can be either.
- What to change
- Check which syrup you have. With a rich 2:1 syrup, use about two-thirds of the 20ml; with a thinner one, use a little more and taste.
- What that does
- The drink lands where the recipe meant it to, and the next one lands in the same place.
- The trade-off
- Rich syrup adds less water, so the drink is fractionally stronger and silkier even at the adjusted measure.
Something else wrong? Open this drink in the Recipe Doctor.
Taste profile
- Sweetness
- 2/5
- Sourness
- 3/5
- Bitterness
- 1/5
- Strength
- 3/5
- Fruitiness
- 3/5
- Freshness
- 2/5
- Creaminess
- 1/5
- Smokiness
- 0/5
Nutrition & alcohol
Estimate only- Calories
- 180 kcal
- Sugar
- 12 g
- Carbohydrates
- 13 g
- Alcohol units (UK)
- 2.26
- US standard drinks
- 1.27
- ABV
- 15.6%
- Serving size
- 145 ml
Show calculation assumptions
Source: Calculated from standard measures
Calorie breakdown: ~125 kcal from alcohol, ~55 kcal from sugar and mixers.
Likely range: 135–225 kcal, reflecting the confidence level above — not a lab-measured figure.
Assumes bourbon at 40% ABV, red wine at 13%, 1:1 simple syrup and about 25% dilution from shaking.
These figures are estimates, not laboratory measurements — individual tolerance to alcohol varies. See our responsible drinking guidance.
Variations
With rye
Use rye whisky for a spicier, drier base.
What kind of drink this is
The structure behind the recipe
A shaken build: a sour-structured whisky-based drink, served over ice — foamed in the mouth.
Sour-structured
Something sour and something sweet held in balance over a base — the structure behind the whole sour family and everything descended from it.
Base
Bourbon or rye whisky
Modifier
Dry red wine
Sour element
Fresh lemon juice
Sweet element
Simple syrup
Foaming agent
Egg white (optional)
Drinks built this way are collected as the Sour family.
Technique
shaken
Ice is thrown against the liquid and against itself, chipping fragments off and driving air through the mix. Chilling, dilution and aeration all happen at once and cannot be separated.
A lighter, briefly frothy body and a cloudy appearance that settles as it stands. The aeration blunts alcoholic heat, which is why a shaken drink tastes softer than a stirred one of the same strength.
What it ruins: Clarity, and any carbonation. A shaken spirits-only drink arrives cloudy with ice shards floating in it, and shaking anything fizzy is the one rule with no exceptions.
Everything about shaking →How the technique works →Dilution
During mixing, then strained
Water from ice typically makes up around 30% of the finished drink for a shaken build (commonly 25–35%). Dilution is an ingredient here, not a side effect.
Why dilution is an ingredient →Served
Over ice
Rocks glass · 145ml
Served on ice, so it keeps chilling in the glass. A larger, colder, slower drink than the same spirits served straight up.
Texture and aroma
A foaming agent builds a dense head that softens the first sip and carries aroma up to the nose.
Aroma arrives before flavour does. A citrus twist is expressed over the surface so its oils sit on top of the drink — skipping it changes the drink more than its size suggests.
Where to go from here
Each of these is here because of something specific about this drink, not as a standard set of links.
Drinking this with food: seafood, oysters and anything raw
On its recorded taste scores this drink meets the test for seafood, oysters and anything raw — the page explains the principle behind it rather than simply asserting the pairing.
Understanding why drinks work
Once you can make this, the intermediate path is where recipes stop being things to memorise.
Where this fits in a home bar
Bourbon is bottle 3 in the order that unlocks the most drinks — buying it opens up 7 recipes beyond the ones before it.
Where it comes from
Origin and family
Origin of the New York Sour
A whiskey sour with a claret float is recorded in American bar books from the 1880s under several names, Continental Sour among them; the New York name became standard later.
The IBA uses 60ml whisky, 30ml lemon, 22.5ml syrup, a little egg white and 15ml red wine.
Family
Sour2 parts spirit · 1 part citrus · 1 part sweetener — shaken, strained, served up or over ice.
On drinks history
Cocktail origin stories are frequently repeated and rarely evidenced. Our history section separates what is documented from what is folklore rather than picking whichever version reads best.
History and culture →Try this next
- Cosmopolitan
You may like this because it shares a sour-forward profile with the New York Sour, but uses vodka instead of whisky.
- Bacardí CocktailBacardí Cocktail
You may like this because it shares a sour-forward profile with the New York Sour, but uses rum instead of whisky.
- White LadyWhite Lady
You may like this because it shares a sour-forward profile with the New York Sour, but uses gin instead of whisky.
Use up your ingredients
Bought a bottle just for this? Here's what else it's good for.
Related tools
Scale this for a party
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How far a bottle goes
Drinks per bottle, which bottle runs out first, batching — and the cost, at your own prices.
Recipe confidence
The drink is old and well attested; the history of its names is less certain.