A relatively simple cocktail that impresses with a beautiful red wine float adding colour and complexity!

All the more appropriate that the red wine be Pinot Noir, the same type of barrel that the Tawse Whisky was aged in for 15 months.

  • 2 ounces rye or bourbon whiskey
  • 1 ounce fresh lemon juice
  • 1 ounce simple syrup
  • ½ ounce red wine

Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add bourbon, lemon juice, and simple syrup; seal lid on shaker, and shake until chilled and frost forms on shaker, about 15 seconds. Strain into a rocks glass filled with large ice cubes.

Gently and slowly, pour wine over the back of a spoon held just above the cocktail’s surface, letting the wine float at top of glass. Finish with lemon, the best way being to pinch lemon peel over the cocktail, and run around the rim of the glass; add peel to glass as a garnish. Serve immediately

NOTE: Sours are often made with egg white, though we omitted this for simplicity’s sake. If you’d like to add some creamy body and weight to this cocktail, had an egg white to the shaker and dry shake before adding ice!