Sangria is a staple summer beverage in my opinion. It’s cold, refreshing, and delicious! When I’m looking for a sangria recipe I want something that’s not too boozy, that doesn’t have any complicated ingredients, and that doesn’t require you to buy bottles of weird liqueurs that you’ll never use again. This recipe below is my go-to simple summer sangria.
*Any fruit will do! Your choice. I always recommend including a citrus element (lemon or orange are good) to brighten and add an acidic element to your sangria!
1. Start by pouring one bottle of wine into a large bowl with a lid OR a large Ziploc bag. Any wine will do, as long as it tastes good to you! I prefer a dry wine (with no sweetness), but if you have a sweet tooth, an off-dry or slightly sweet wine will work as well.
2. Cut up an assortment of fruit into bite sized pieces or slices. You don’t want the pieces too big. Some of my favorite sangria fruits include: apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries, oranges, and lemons.
3. Dump the fruit into the bowl or bag with the wine and store in the fridge overnight.
4. Awaken to a drunken bag of fruit!
5. Put the wine + fruit contents into the serving bowl or pitcher. Add in some pineapple juice (to taste) plus the bottle of sparkling. If you’d like to dilute it a bit to offset some of the fruitiness, add a float of club soda.
6. Serve in large wine glasses or tumblers with a healthy serving of the drunken fruit!
What I love about this recipe is that the customization is endless. You get to pick your wine, your favorite fruit, and the bubbles.
If you run low on sangria and are just left with a bowl full of drunken fruit, and the party’s still going, just refresh the bowl with a new bottle of wine and some more pineapple juice and voila…the party continues!
Another option is to prepare the sangria base (still wine, fruit, and pineapple juice) and have the bottle of bubbles on ice beside the serving pitcher/bowl, so people can add their own bubbly float. That way you can store the sangria base in the fridge overnight if there is any leftover, without worrying about it going flat!
