Summer Sangria

All of the pictures on Pinterest tempted me into this one.  I decided to bring this along to a potluck cocktail party instead of the standard bottle of wine.  It was pretty much gone after an hour, so I will take that as a success!  One note on the credit – this pin linked to the Better Homes and Gardens web site, which, after an hour of looking, the actual recipe could not be found.  Thankfully, there was very short recipe in the comment section of the pin.  But, sadly, I have no link or proper credit for this one.

• Servings: 8-10
• Difficulty: easy
• Print

Credit: Pinterest/Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients

• 1 pint raspberries
• 1 pint strawberries, chopped
• 1 lime, sliced
• 1 Granny Smith apple, chopped
• 1 Braeburn apple, chopped
• 1 bottle white wine (Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, or non-carbonated Moscato)
• ½ cup grape juice (preferably no sugar added grape juice)
• 1 can club soda

Directions

1. Put fruit into a pitcher. (It looks pretty if you can layer them.)
2. Add grape juice and wine.
3. Place into refrigerator for a few hours to overnight.
4. Add club soda right before serving.

I found that this recipe needed a few tweaks when I made it.

A note on the wine – I specifically went for a sweeter wine and chose a Moscato from a vineyard that I liked.  It WAS not carbonated (some people associate Moscato with bubbles and this is often the case, but I do not recommend using it or adding anything carbonated until you are ready to serve).

With the addition of the grape juice, I found it quite sweet (maybe a little too sweet).  If you go with a sweeter wine, I would decrease the amount of grape juice by half and increase to taste.  Also, I recommend using a no sugar added grape juice…I used a regular name brand grape juice and the flavor seemed a bit artificial.

If you choose a drier wine, you can also lemon-lime soda instead of club soda to adjust the sweetness.  “Mistakes” are pretty easy to fix – I just happened to have a small bottle of inexpensive Pinot Grigio that I added before serving to tone down the sweetness.  I preferred adding that instead of more club soda, as that just waters down the flavors.

I feel like the recipe needs a little further tweaking to get it right, but I didn’t want any more time to pass before sharing because it really is good.  If you try this, I’d love to know what type of wine you used and how it turned out.  Cheers!