Lighten Up with Wine-Based Cocktails
In last week’s Washington Post, Jason Wilson dipped into a slowly growing trend in the bar world: wine-based cocktails. But as Wilson points out, the pleasure to be found in these drinks isn’t entirely culinary: he writes, “Using wine in cocktails is a surefire way to scandalize the serious wine aficionados in your life. Which is always fun.”
Mostly ignored until recently, wine-based cocktails date back to the earliest days of mixology: drinks historian David Wondrich writes that the sherry cobbler—made with dry sherry, sugar and fresh fruit—enjoyed great popularity in the mid-19th century, as did relatives made with sauternes, and with French and German wines then grouped under the now-archaic labels claret and hock. Mixing drinks with champagne as a base ingredient has been perennially popular, and fortified wines such as port and vermouth have lent flavorful touches to drinks for more than a century.
Today, wine-based drinks appeal to palates seeking lighter flavors, as well as to drinkers who wish to simply ingest less alcohol, but who want something livelier in the glass than a standard glass of chardonnay. And while domestic wineries are getting into the game, fortified wines such as sherries, quinquinas and chinatos are getting a fresh look from creative bartenders.
What do you reach for when you want something more than just a glass of wine, but with lower horsepower than a martini? Have you tried any of the new (or old) class of wine-based drinks?
About the author: Paul Clarke blogs about cocktails at The Cocktail Chronicles and writes regularly on spirits and cocktails for Imbibe magazine. He lives in Seattle, where he works as a writer and magazine editor.
View other entries from Cocktails.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
5 Comments:
One of my favorite cocktails of all time is the classic champagne cocktail, with a lemon peel garnish (preferably candied---that's how I roll) and the sugar cube soaked in Angostura bitters. Pretty, pink, sweet and sour...yum. Also I love a Bellini anytime, any place.
And in the winter, mulled wine with a generous helping of ginger-spiked brandy will warm anyone up. I just submerge a good helping of sliced ginger into a bottle of brandy about a week before I want to make mulled wine, then add a half-shot or so to every mug of the spicy sweet wine. Yum!
rosezilla at 7:50PM on 06/19/08
How about adding creme de cassis to white wine? That's pretty tasty on a hot day.
TikiPundit at 11:10PM on 06/19/08
I really enjoy sangria in the summer... it's so fruity and refreshing.
tracychin at 9:24AM on 06/20/08
Make wine lovers really mad:
red wine + tonic + ice + lime = wine spritzer
My parents used to drink them on hot summer days with dinner. Now I do. They're good!
tg323 at 11:46AM on 06/20/08
One of my favorite cocktails was this cucumber-pinot grigio mixture that I had at the Austin Food and Wine Festival a couple of months ago. It was perfectly (but not too much) sweet, amazingly refereshing and had that little mmmm-buzz that made you think, "this is something different!" Wish I could figure out how to make it........
nichole at 12:26PM on 06/20/08