Jalapenos in sauvignon blanc? It might be the next drink of the summer
New York: A funny thing started happening in New York City bars a couple of months ago. Drinkers began ordering glasses of sauvignon blanc – with jalapeno slices in them.
“I know it’s a trend,” says bartender John Murphy, who remains a little perplexed by the whole thing. “It started with rosé. And now it’s moved to sauvignon blanc. It’s one of those things that’s just taking off.”
On a recent Thursday afternoon, Murphy mixed three types of the drink – one with frozen jalapeno slices, one freshly cut and one with the slices muddled into the drink with a pestle – for this masthead to taste at his West Village bar, Automatic Slim’s.
Like so many of today’s trends, this one took off on TikTok. You can find videos of people pouring white wine over jalapeno slices years ago, but it was only this year that it developed into a full-blown thing, helped along by a slew of influencers jumping on board.
“So apparently the girls are putting jalapeno in wine,” Bea Caroline Seitz told her 380,000 followers in a video last month. Quickly, the spicy sauvignon blanc has been proclaimed as the new “drink of the summer”.
Bartenders have a tendency to scoff at the creation, although it’s not like people are ordering it with vintage chardonnay. This is the kind of drink best made with a $15 bottle of savvy B from the Marlborough Valley.
Bartender John Murphy mixes sauvignon blanc with jalapenos at his bar, Automatic Slim’s, in New York City.Credit: Ying Xiang Tan
So says Emrecan Uslu, manager at Entwine Cocktail Bar, a block away from Automatic Slim’s. He recommends a sweet or floral wine, such as an Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc, rather than something dry. His sauvignon blanc comes from Sancerre in France and doesn’t take too well to slices of jalapeño, though he’ll make it if he has to.
“I don’t like it, but the customer is always right,” Uslu says. “I’m not a big fan of spice, but if you had a little, and you take it out after that, I think it can work.”
There is no clear agreement on how many slices should be added for a standard glass of white wine, although Murphy reckons “the voices of the internet” have settled on three or four. Despite his barman’s preference for purity, he admits the drink works.
“Jalapeno on anything is great, makes it a little better,” he enthuses. “You put it on pizza, a New York slice. Try it. It’s life changing. Jalapeno in tuna. It’ll change your life.”
“Jalapeno on anything is great, makes it a little better. You put it on pizza, a New York slice. Try it. It’s life changing.”Credit: Ying Xiang Tan
My colleague, Ying, agrees to a blind taste test. Counter-intuitively, he claims not to taste as much jalapeno in the muddled drink, compared to the frozen and fresh slices, but detects more of the spice. Would he order it in a bar? “Absolutely.”
For mine, I wonder if the kick is more from the aroma than actual infusion. That all changes when, inspired by his jalapeño maxim, Murphy decides to experiment by dropping a few slices into flutes of prosecco.
The effect is instant and intense. “That was pretty epic,” Murphy says as he sniffs and sips. “That was right up the nose. It’s part of the taste, too. That’s spicy.“
After marinating for another five minutes, it is nearly undrinkable.
An Aperol spritz – the evergreen drink of the summer.Credit: Christopher Pearce
Whether the jalapeno sauvignon blanc takes off or becomes a fad that’s left behind in 2025, both barmen agree it’s a long way off displacing the evergreen drink of the summer, the Aperol spritz.
“It’s the reigning champion for the last three years,” says Murphy.
Uslu says the Hugo spritz, which replaces Aperol with elderflower liqueur, has also become popular.
Murphy, 61, used to be vice president of creative at the department store Macy’s. He left the corporate world in 2019 and started working at the bar weeks before COVID-19 began to tear through New York. Now he’s a partner in the business and says the career change was the smartest decision he’s ever made.
Slim’s is a sanctuary from the chaos of the city and Donald Trump’s America – which, as you might expect, is a frequent topic of complaint at a New York City bar. Murphy is sanguine about it.
“He’s going to do what he’s going to do. The world’s going to do what it’s going to do. The one thing I know is that people are still going to drink.”
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