What kind of red wine could I use to make sangria and how to make it from scratch?
I live in Andalucia and I make my own sangria. Many believe there is a sangria wine that you can use, but that is not so. Many Spanish people simply add a drink called Casera to red wine to make a tinto verano (Summer wine). Casera is a very light lemonade type drink. Sangria is more upmarket. You can be inspirational with any sangria. Every region in Spain they make it differently. Sangria need not necessarily be made with red wine. You can have sangria blanco (white sangria). I basically use a cheap red wine, I add Spanish brandy, cointreau, peach snapps, vodka & occasionally white rum. I get some lemons and oranges, cut them into slices and add the spirits. I let that soak in the fridge for two hours before adding a bottle of red wine, followed by the casera. The casera helps to keep the alcohol content down. I then add sugar to get the sangria to the flavour I want. Keeping the alcohol down is important in hot countries. Sangria should be a good drink for a hot day. Too much alcoho
I use zinfandel sometimes and other times I use cheap sangria wine(there’s literally a sangria wine). Usually for a sangria you cut up some fruit (Limes, Lemons, Oranges, and sometimes apples) You use an entire bottle of wine, a small splash of brandy, and a cup of orange juice to mellow it out. I like to use some pomegranate juice in there as well to make it a little more fruity. You can also make a sangria with white wine. I’ll usually put in a little peach schnapps, 1 cup orange juice and pineapple juice. And slice some peaches for a good peach flavoured sangria which is great for spring and summer. Hope that helps!
A decent quality jug wine is all that is necesary for sangria, as mexican restaurants usually buy the cheapest swill they can find and everybody loves it and overpays for it. An old buddy of mine used to be a bar manager in a mexican restaurant in my wine business days. Here is the recipe I saw him make a thousand times. He would line up about 6 pitchers and to each one he would add a scoup of ice, a shot of spanish brandy, about a cup of OJ, a heavy shot of triple sec, cut up apples and oranges and fill with red wine. Made the same way for white sangria.
