Ingredients Sangria

By Mark Adams

Mark is the founder of amber crest winery, a professional winemaker, an author and frequent speaker on wine.  He teaches wine classes throughout the United States.  This is an excerpt about ingredients sangria from The Really Fun Sangria Book

What are the perfect Sangria Ingredients?

Sangria can consist of many different ingredients.  The main ingredient, of course is wine.  Red wine is typical, but there are many versions and recipes of white wine sangria, as well.

Lets go over each of the ingredients and share a few tips for better Sangria.

The wine:

Since you are blending this wine with other things to make your drink, use a relatively inexpensive bottle.  Say around $10 or so.  Yes, there are less price bottles, but usually wine under $10 is iffy in taste at best.

I would encourage you to not use more expensive wine.  The subtle flavors and aromas of more expensive wine will be lost in blending.  So in essence, the $12 red wine you have with pizza on Tuesday night will work great.

If you’re a traditionalist and you want to be authentic, Spanish red wines, called Rioja are what’s most used in Sangria.  But in reality, about any red will do.

Other Alcohol:

I actually prefer sangria in its most natural form, which is a red wine and some fruit.  But I also think there are different Sangrias for different moods or occasions.  For instance feeling a little festive?  How about adding some Triple-Sec.

Triple-Sec is a generic name for any orange flavored liqueur.  Some of the most popular brand names are Cointreau or Grand Marnier.  Think of it as flavor with a little zip.

Feeling a little formal.  How about adding some brandy?  Brand is simply wine that is distilled.  So you get more wine flavor but with a little kick, as well.

Cognac is a well known brandy that comes from the Cognac region in France.  Since this is usually pretty expensive, probably no need to use it here.  Any reasonable version of brandy from your wine store will do.

The Fruit:

This is where Sangria becomes poetry!  This is where your creativity comes out.  You can actually throw in about any fruit you have around and you’ll probably be fine.

But the traditional fruit is citrus, something like oranges, lemons and or limes cut into slices.

Other fruits like apples or pears work well, too.

Just add what you like and you’ll be fine.

The Sweetner:

Sangria should be sweeter than a traditional wine.  Most people use sugar, but honey is often used.  The sugar or honey simply brings out the flavors and makes the Sangria easier to drink.

Here’s a tip.  Your regular table sugar will be OK to use, but make sure that it has dissolved before serving.

One simple way around this is to use powered sugar or the best solution is to make simple syrup.  Take a pan and add equal parts sugar and water and heat until the sugar is dissolved.  Cool mixture and add to the pitcher.  Problem solved.

Now that you know some of the basics, the fun is in experimenting with different versions of Sangria.  You can find lots of different recipes here.

Enjoy your ingredients Sangria!