I decided to make my own sangria last weekend to go along with our Parking Lot Chicken. I’m not a big wine drinker at all. When I’m in the wine isle, I wish they had a category that was labeled “Newbie Wine.” It’s not that I don’t really like it, I just like it super sweet. No dry stuff please! And I prefer red over white. Same with grapes. I’ll pass on the green, but black and red are my favorite so I guess it makes sense that I’d prefer sweet red. I’ve bought bottles of sangria before and they were ok, but I wanted mine to be more fruity – as in fruit soaked in it and floating all through it and needing a spoon at the end to scoop out the fruit and enjoy. I wanted mine to be fizzy. Bottled Sangria lacks fizz so that’s a big downer for me. I searched Pinterest and found a few recipes that seemed on line with what I was looking for. As the check out lady checked my ID at the grocery store, scanning my items, I told her about my plans to make sangria and how excited I was to make it. I do love the grocery store!
This recipe is based on a recipe for Sparkling Fruit Sangria by Sallysbakingaddiction.com. She has all kinds of different Sangria recipes on there. One creative blog! I just went with a more basic sangria. I’m already thinking of what kind I’ll try next . . .
If you want a non alcoholic version of my fruity sangria, I’ve included that too. Of course, I had to make my girls little fun fruity drinks to match our grown up drinks.
Fruity Sangria
Ingredients:
1 Bottle of either white or red wine. I chose a sweet red wine by Barefoot.
1 Bottle of champagne. I chose a blush champagne.
Fruit of your choice – I used sliced lemon, frozen blueberries, sliced strawberries, sliced nectarine, and sweet cherries with pits removed.
Ratio of wine to champagne is 1:1, so try to keep the bottles the same size if you are going to be using all of it. I just made half a batch. Thank goodness for screw on resealable champagne bottles! When did those come around? I was surprised to find this. I’m not sure if and how long it will keep the champagne’s bubbles, but it can’t hurt.
Add desired fruit into your pitcher. Save back some of the fruit for each glass.
Pour wine over the fruit in the pitcher and stir. Chill this wine/fruit in the fridge for at least an hour before serving to let the fruit really soak and flavor the wine.
Just before serving, add a little fruit to each glass.
Pop the champagne and pour this in the pitcher with the wine and soaked fruit.
Pour the sangria into each glass, scooping a little soaked fruit into each glass with a spoon. Add a few ice cubes to each glass if needed.
For non alcoholic version
Ingredients:
Fruit Juice – I used a Blueberry Pomegranate blend
Ginger Ale or some type of citrus soda
Fruit of your choice – I used sliced lemon, frozen blueberries, sliced strawberries, sliced nectarine, and sweet cherries with pits removed.
Directions:
Add fruit to pitcher and pour fruit juice over top. Let this soak in the fridge for an hour or so. Or if you are not making a big batch, you could just pour the juice directly into each glass like I did.
Add a little fruit to each glass and then pour the refrigerated juice with fruit into each glass about 1/2 way.
Just before serving, top each glass with ginger ale or any fruit or clear soda.
Enjoy!
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