Hot Topic: Between Grape and Grain: Wine Cocktails
Sometimes you just can't decide between a martini and a Malbec. What to do? Opt for a wine cocktail.
Source: TryWine.net, June 19, 2009
By: Kelly Magyarics
While this term technically encompasses Champagne cocktails and pitchers of Sangria, clever mixologists all over the country are mixing wine with spirits, juices, bitters and syrups to create balanced, complex drinks. Confused cocktailians torn between grape and grain may find that mixing up a wine cocktail is just right.
At New York's PDT, renowned for its well-crafted, classic cocktails, owner Jim Meehan incorporates at least one wine cocktail into the menu each season, and he reaches for bottles that haven't spent time in new wood. "Oak is not a flavor profile I'm looking to showcase in my cocktails," he explains. His potent Against All Odds Cocktail combines Bushmills Irish Whiskey, Rothman & Winter Apricot Liqueur and Clement Crole Schrubb with Chardonnay. Drinks like these tend to have a smaller niche than more fruit-forward options, like the Riesling-and pear brandy-based Falling Leaves, a concoction by another Manhattan-based cocktail master, Audrey Saunders.
So what makes a good wine cocktail? According to Robert Heugel, Owner of Anvil Bar & Refuge in Houston, "You want the wine to appear in a manner that enhances the cocktail in a balanced, interesting manner. In general, red wines work better with bolder cocktail ingredients, and whites create more subtle, delicate cocktails." He has found wine cocktails to be easily marketable since people are more familiar with wine than they may be with some of the new and exotic liquors on the market. Heugel believes that wine cocktails work best as long drinks since wine's alcohol isn't as potent as that of spirits, so he tops wine cocktails with soda. "I guess there's a reason people have always sort of liked wine spritzers," he speculates.
Mixologists are pulling all kinds of bottles from the cellar and using them in the shaker. Red or white, domestic or imported, wine is accessible and approachable, and home bartenders can easily follow suit. Dawson offers only one piece of advice. "Only corked wines don't work."
Want more wine cocktail ideas? Check out our recipes page!
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