Drinks · Recipes
ByCasey Barber Last Updated:
Anyone who grew up in an Italian family remembers his or her first taste of wine: heavily diluted with water and very likely served in a sturdy juice glass.
That was me, swinging my legs from a creaky metal chair on my grandparents’ patio, politely sipping from a cup emblazoned with sunny Florida oranges and proud to be sophisticated enough to drink the same thing as the grown-ups.
Thinking of those first childhood tastes of wine, the splash of water in my tiny tumbler smoothing out the bitter tannins for my young palate, made me realize that what I was drinking back then was really a basic variation on the traditional spritz co*cktail.
Over the past few years, these fizzy, summery drinks have reclaimed their rightful place at the table as co*cktail enthusiasts have explored the varied (and storied) traditions of the European spritzer.
Most of us know the Italian spritz best–Aperol, Prosecco, soda–but there’s a world of spritz co*cktails out there (more than a book’s worth, in fact!) that pair wine with carbonation.
Riffing on this centuries-old practice became my obsession as I perfected my go-to recipe for a summery red wine spritzer.
Subtly savory but still thirst-quenching, and most certainly not diluted in flavor or body in any way, my new favorite warm-weather wine co*cktail takes its cues from two sources.
The Spanish tinto de verano pairs red wine with lemon-lime soda, and the New York Sour is a wine-topped version of a whiskey sour that’s been knocking around since the 19th century.
My red wine spritzer whisks the whiskey out of the equation for a more sessionable drink.
It’s something you can easily down a few glasses of while relaxing in a hammock or rocking on the porch all afternoon and still be no worse for the wear.
Homemade sour mix keeps it fresh and really only takes 10 minutes to pull together, so you can ditch the bottled version for good. (Plus, it’s got a crazy-easy-to-memorize recipe for good measure–pun intended!)
I’ve made this co*cktail with pretty much every wine I’ve happened to have open at the time, from jammy Zinfandel to light-bodied Beaujolais, so there’s no need to get fancy with the wine you choose for your float.
If you want to find me when July rolls around, I’ll be drinking a tumblerful on my own patio–relaxing in the same chairs that once graced my grandparents’ backyard.
Red Wine Spritzer
Yield: 2 drinks
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Leave white wine on the shelf this summer and try a refreshing red wine spritzer, made with homemade sour mix, for a change of pace.
Ingredients
Homemade Sour Mix
- 1/4 cup (1 3/4 ounces; 50 grams) granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 1-2 lemons)
- 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 2 limes)
co*cktail
- 1/2 cup homemade sour mix
- 1 cup sparkling water
- 1/2 cup red wine
Instructions
Make the sour mix:
- Stir the sugar and water together in a small saucepan over medium heat.
- Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally until the sugar has completely dissolved and the syrup is clear.
- Pour into a heat-safe jar, like a Mason jar, and cool to room temperature.
- Stir in the lemon and lime juices.
Assemble the red wine spritzers:
- Fill a Collins glass or other tall glass (like a juice glass!) with a handful of ice cubes.
- Gently stir 1/4 cup sour mix and 1/3-1/2 cup sparkling water into each glass.
- Top each with 1/4 cup red wine; if you pour gently, the wine will float on top of the soda, slowly bleeding into the co*cktail as the ice melts.
- Stick a straw and/or a co*cktail stirrer in each glass and serve immediately. You and your fellow drinkers can choose to mix the wine into the rest of the co*cktail or let it slowly meld together on its own.
Notes
Store the sour mix for up to 2 weeks in a sealed container in the refrigerator.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 2 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 132Total Fat: 0gSaturated Fat: 0gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 16mgCarbohydrates: 24gFiber: 0gSugar: 18gProtein: 0g
The nutritional information above is computer-generated and only an estimate.
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