Red wine drinkers are always faced with a conundrum during the summer: switch to white wine or sweat through their usual glass of chianti. But wait! The Spanish have found the answer to drinking red wine in the heat; make it into a punch and add more booze! Hooray! If you haven’t tried this lovely and refreshing beverage, stop everything and go whip up a batch. The refrigerator does most of the work.

Red Wine Sangria

Ingredients

• 1 bottle of red wine
• 1/4 cup of brandy
• 1/4 cup of triple sec
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1/2 large naval orange
• 1/2 large lime
• 1 sweet apple, like gala or fuji
• 1 750 mil bottle sparkling water

Prep

• In a large pitcher, add the wine, brandy, triple sec, and sugar.
• Squeeze the juice of both the lime and the orange into the pitcher. Watch for seeds.
• Slice up the orange, lime, and apple into thin slices. Add them to the pitcher.
• Stir the pitcher to blend all the ingredients and move the fruit all through the solution.
• Refrigerate for about 2 hours.
• When you are ready to serve, add the sparkling water and stir.

I like to ask guests if they want fruit in their sangria or not. Some really love chunks of fruit in their glass that they can nibble on and some feel like they are eating a booze-y fruit salad.

Now all you need to do is fetch some sort of pool floaty, a bathing suit, and one of those silly sun hats so you can float around and sip away, enjoying the good life.

~Salut, and of course, nom on