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The Best Wine for Sangria That You’ll Love!

The Best Wine for Sangria That You’ll Love!

Many people around the globe love drinking their sangria. It is a great drink for when the weather is hot and sometimes the perfect drink regardless of the temperature. If you perfect a sangria recipe, you can be sure that your guests, friends, and family are going to love the holiday dinner and spending time with you. Many people find drinking wine daily to be too expensive. Sangria can be a great way to enjoy a cheap bottle of wine and to upgrade the flavors of those cheaper wines.

What is Sangria?

Of course, if you want to make a delicious sangria, first you have to know what sangria is. The first thing that you should know is that the name sangria comes from Spain. This is a drink that was very common and popular and will be appreciated throughout Europe. Sangria is a punch cocktail that is made from sugar-sweetened wine and fruit being combined into a drink. Many people claim that the first time that the sangria was seen was at the World Fair that was held in the United States in 1964.

Today sangria remains one of the most popular cocktails in the world. It is actually the most popular wine cocktail in the entire world as well. Plus, sangria remains popular in Spain.

The Best Wines for Sangria

One of the things that you will need to do in order to make the best sangria is able to determine the types of wines that are best for sangria. You can make sangria from both white wines and red wines.

White Wines for Sangria

One of the things that make white wines good for sangria is that they are not as bitter as red wines. This is because they have fewer tannins. The tannins that are in red wine make them more bitter. This makes white wines a perfect contender for delicious sangrias. One of the things that you will want to avoid with white wines are the ones that have been oaked. If you are choosing a chardonnay, make sure that you look for one that is unoaked.

Common Garnishes for White Wine Sangrias

There are some common garnishes that you should consider using when you are looking at white wine sangrias. These are the fruits that are going to make the sangria light and zingy.

  • Limes
  • Cucumbers
  • Herbs
  • Lemons

Using these garnishes is going to make the wine’s crisp and light.

The Perfect Sangria White Wine Choices

Of course, you are probably interested in which of the white wines are going to work best for your sangria recipes.

Riesling is a white wine that is originally from Germany. It is best accentuated with lemon flavors.

Chateau Ste. Michelle Columbia Valley Riesling is from Washington and costs $8. This is a great choice for a Riesling if that is the type of wine that you want for your sangria.

Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling 2016 | Wine.com

Chateau Ste. Michelles' Columbia Valley Riesling is a blend of Riesling from throughout Washington’s Columbia Valley. Their goal is to craft a refreshing, flavorful, medium-dry Riesling vintage after vintage. The wine offers crisp apple aromas and flavors with subtle mineral notes. This is their “everyday Riesling” that is a pleasure to drink and easy to match with a variety of foods.

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Pinot Gris

Pinot Gris is a delicious white wine that has nice tropical fruit aromas. This is a more pronounced wine that often has notes of ripe peaches and ripe apricots.

The Villa Wolf Pinot Gris costs $12. This wine is a delicious choice if you want the bright and tropical hints that you get with a pinot gris.

Torrontes

A Torrontes is another delicious wine that is great for using in sangria. This one is from Argentina. It is a medium-bodied white wine and it is highly floral.

At just $10 per bottle, the Norton 1895 Coleccion Torrontes is not only a delicious wine, but it is also a wine that is perfect for making sangria. This bottle is affordable, but do not let the price fool you, it is still a really good glass of wine. 

Viognier

Viognier is another delicious variety of white wine that is perfect for anyone who wants a white wine sangria. It has a nice pronounced aroma of tropical fruit. It also has the aroma and flavor of ripe apricots and ripe peaches.

The Yalumba Eden Valley Viognier costs $16 and is a great choice if you want a good viognier that is not going to break the bank. It has a delicious floral note and has hints of Golden Delicious apples and white peaches.

Vinho Verde

Vinho Verde is a wine that originated in Portugal. This wine is known for having a neutral base. This makes it one of the most perfect wines for sangria because it is going to allow for the flavors from the fruits and juices to shine through.

The Casal Garcia Vinho Verde is a great bottle of wine that costs just $8. This wine is a nice crisp white wine that is filled with the delicious flavors of fresh cut apples. It also has a juicy citrus note. Plus, it has hints of fresh juicy peaches.

Sauvignon Blanc

A sauvignon blanc is one of the most popular and best white wines that you can drink. These wines are known for having a tropical touch. However, they mainly have a grassy or earthy taste.

The Dreaming Tree Sauvignon Blanc is a delicious white wine. This wine offers you some distinct characteristics that are common with a sauvignon blanc. It is made in the United States in the Sonoma area of California.

Red Wines for Sangria

While many people love to drink white wine sangria, red wine sangria is even more popular. In fact, it is one of the most commonly drank cocktails. Red wine sangria is the traditional type of sangria. It is a stronger drink because of the tannins and higher alcohol content that you will find in red wine when comparing it to white wine. Just as in with white wines, the type of red wine that you choose is going to really influence the flavors of your sangria.

Common Garnishes for Red Wines

There is a wide range of flavors that you will want to enhance when you are making red wine sangria. The fruits that you use should help to bring out the flavors of the wine that you want to make stronger. 

  • Oranges
  • Pears
  • Apples

These fruits are going to help add some sweetness to the bitter red wines and will bring out the natural fruit flavors that are sometimes not as easy to detect because of the tannins.

The Perfect Red Wine Choices for Sangria

There are a number of delicious red wine flavors that you will want to find. We decided to put together a list of our favorite reds from the most popular categories of red wine.

Merlot

Merlot is one of the perfect red choices for sangria. It has a fruity and round soft body flavor. Merlots have natural flavors that share hints of pear, Assam tea leaves, vanilla, and dried fig.

Noble Wine 181 Lodi Merlot is a surprisingly high-quality wine from a $9 bottle. This Merlot is available through a vast variety of retailers so it is easy to find and at just $9, it is an affordable choice. It has strong hints of vanilla and black cherry.

 Pinot Noir

A great pinot noir is going to be a delicious wine that is perfect for making the best sangrias. This red wine is generally affordable and even the high-end bottles never cost too much. It is a great choice for sangria because of its strong fruit flavors that come through.

The Estancia Pinot Noir is a great bottle of wine that costs just $12. It has enticing and bright flavors that will offer aromas of warm spices, cherries, and raspberries. One of the best things about this wine is that has great structure and balance.

Cabernet Sauvignon 

A cabernet sauvignon is a great wine that offers a bigger boost of flavors than some wines. The best thing about these wines is that there are actually some bottles that are downright cheap that are still delicious. They have a great aroma of blackberries and black currants. When you taste this wine, it offers the flavors of roasted coffee and cocoa.

We love our cabernet sauvignons and Winking Owl Cabernet Sauvignon is one of our favorites. This wine costs just around $3. This wine is carried by a German-owned grocery chain called Aldi. It is one of the best steals in the wine market today and one that we love using in our own sangrias.

Now that you know some great wines to make sangria with, you will be ready to explore with sangria making.

Rose Wines for Sangria

If you have ever asked for advice about shopping for a rose, you are probably used to being told that you need to find a better quality rose to enjoy it. This means that you are going to be buying a more expensive bottle of wine. However, with sangria that is not the case.

Rose

A good rose is going to offer you some delicious fruit forward flavors. Even the more affordable versions of the wine are great for sangria.

The Marques de Caceres Rioja Rose is a delicious bottle of rose that costs you just $9. It has some high-quality flavors and is crisp and earthy just like you would expect.

Sparking Wines for Sangria

One of the things that you might not see often that is still delicious is sangria made with sparkling wine. The thing that you are going to notice is that you have to make this version of sangria by the glass or your sparkling wine is no longer going to be sparkling. There is a wide range of sparkling wines that you can use, but choosing one that is not too sweet is a great way to ensure that you have something delicious.

Sparkling

Sparkling wines are often delicious and one of the favorites of those who are hoping for a wine that is easy drinking. The flavors can range and some are very sweet. It is always a good idea to choose a sparkling wine for your sangria that is not too sweet.

The Ruffino Sparkling Rose is one of the best choices for a great sparkling sangria. While there are many others that will work, this one is affordable at $8 from some retailer.

Delicious Sangria Recipes

One of the things that makes sangria so great is that it is both casual and fancy. It is a complex drink that offers you more. The best part is that you do not have to be a mixologist to make a delicious and great sangria. You can make it all on your own. Here we are sharing some of the top recipes that we have found, but there are literally hundreds more out there.

Rose Sangria

This rose sangria recipe is a delicious choice that blends together rose wine with berries and citrus flavors.

Ingredients

  • 1 bottle of rose wine
  • ¾ cup lemon liquor
  • ¼ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
  • 2 Tbs simple syrup
  • 1 cup fresh raspberry halves
  • 1 cup fresh strawberry slices
  • 1 orange halved and sliced
  • 1 ½ lemon halved and sliced
  • ½ lemon sliced in round circles (for garnish)
  • Whole raspberries (for garnish)

Instructions

  • Step 1 — Combine the fruit (except the lemon slices for garnish and the whole raspberries) in a large pitcher.
  • Step 2 — Pour in the lemon liquor.
  • Step 3 — Mix together the simple syrup and the freshly squeezed lemon juice. Add this to the pitcher.
  • Step 4 — Slowly add in the rose.
  • Step 5 — Stir until well combined.
  • Step 6 — Put in the refrigerator and chill for at least one hour.
  • Step 7 — Pour into glasses and garnish with a lemon circle and a whole raspberry.

Basil Blackberry Sangria

The basil and blackberry flavors in this basic white wine sangria are unique and delicious and perfect for warmer nights or late afternoons on the patio.

Ingredients

  • 1 bottle of pinot grigio
  • 1 cup fresh blackberries
  • ½ cup white rum
  • 1 cup fresh basil leaves
  • 1 lemon thin sliced
  • 1 cup club soda
  • Basil leaves (for garnish)
  • Blackberries (for garnish)

Instructions

  • Step 1 — In a large picture add the pinot grigio.
  • Step 2 — Add in the rum and stir to combine.
  • Step 3 — Add in the basil leaves (leaving the garnish behind), blackberries (leaving the garnish behind), and lemon slices and stir gently.
  • Step 4 — Put into the refrigerator and chill overnight or for at least eight hours.
  • Step 5 — Stir in the club soda just before serving.
  • Step 6 — Pour over a glass of ice.
  • Step 7 — Garnish with a pick that has a basil leave folded and a blackberry.

Autumn Harvest Sangria

The autumn harvest sangria is the perfect sangria for fall. It is delicious when drank while cuddling on your couch or even outside around the bonfire. It is a delicious cocktail made with red wine, spices, and seasonal fruit.

Ingredients

  1. 1 bottle of Rioja wine
  2. ½ cup pear brandy
  3. ½ cup apple brandy
  4. 1 ½ cups apple cider
  5. 1 green pear that has been cored and chopped
  6. ¼ cup cinnamon simple syrup
  7. 1 Honeycrisp apple that has been cored and chopped
  8. ½ orange that has been sliced
  9. ½ cup pomegranate seeds
  10. 4 cinnamon sticks

Instructions

  • Step 1 — Pour the wine into a large pitcher.
  • Step 2 — Add in the brandy and stir.
  • Step 3 — Add the apple cider to the wine and stir.
  • Step 4 — Pour in the cinnamon simple syrup.
  • Step 5 — Add of the fruit and cinnamon sticks.
  • Step 6 — Place in the refrigerator and chill overnight or at least four hours.

Recipe for Cinnamon Simple Syrup

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of sugar
  • 6 cinnamon sticks
  • 1 cup of water

Instructions

In a medium saucepan combine the 1 cup of water and the 1 cup of sugar. Bring this mixture to a boil over high heat and cook until the sugar has completely dissolved and the liquid is just starting to thicken. Move the liquid to a heatproof container, pouring over the cinnamon sticks. Chill for 4 hours or longer. Remove the cinnamon sticks before using.

Sparkling Sangria

A great sparkling sangria is a beautiful drink to enjoy on a hot day. This drink is one that you are going to continue to enjoy.

Ingredients

  • 1 bottle of sparkling wine
  • ½ cup of orange liquor
  • ¼ cup of sugar
  • 1 cup of strawberries sliced
  • 2 small ripe peaches that have been peeled, pitted, and chopped into pieces
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • Whole strawberries for garnish

Instructions

  • Step 1 — Place the fruit into a medium pitcher.
  • Step 2 — Add the sugar and orange liquor and gently stir to combine.
  • Step 3 — Let this mixture sit for at least 45 minutes, but up to 24 hours to allow the fruit to macerate.
  • Step 4 — Pour the sparkling wine over the fruit mixture and enjoy quickly before the wine stops sparkling.

Tips to Make the Perfect Sangria

Mixing cocktails in a world with amazing mixologists showing up at every bar is a certain challenge. There are many different tips that can help you when you are going to be making your own sangria.

Tip #1 — Know Your Wine

The first thing that you need to know when trying to perfect a sangria is how to choose the right wines. The wine is going to be the most important part of your sangria. You want to choose a wine that is delicious and has nice quality when it comes to taste but is not going to break the bank.

There is no reason to break the bank buying the best wines to make sangria, but you want the wine to taste good. Basically, if you would not be drinking it without it being in sangria, then you would not want to use it in the sangria either.

Tip #2 — Don’t Be Offended if Guests Leave the Fruit

Now if you are a sangria lover, you probably love eating the fruit that is at the bottom of the glass. Not only does the wine absorb the flavors of the fruits, but the fruits absorb the flavors of the wine. While you might love eating the fruit, this is not something that is for everyone.

Do not be offended if guests leave the fruit and do not eat it. Likewise, if you do not like the fruit, there is no reason that you should make yourself eat the fruit. In fact, if you or a guest does not like the fruit, there is no reason to add the fruit to the glasses. You can still enjoy your delicious sangria without having to maneuver around the fruit pieces.

Tip #3 — Remember It’s A Lot About the Fruit

While you cannot say that it is all about the fruit, it is a lot about the fruit when it comes to sangria. Make sure that you choose good fresh fruit as your ingredients. You do not want to use fruits that are damaged or old. The fresher the fruit, the better the sangria is going to be. Overall, there are a lot of delicious flavors in sangria that come from the fruit and the better the fruit, the better the sangria.

Tip #4 — Smash Your Fruit

The next thing that you will want to consider doing when you are adding your fruit to your sangria is to smash it. You do not want to muddle it completely so be careful as you want to preserve some of your fruit, but you want to get the fruit juices flowing so that your fruit can absorb more of the wine and the wine can absorb more of the fruit’s flavors. By smashing your fruit a bit before you add it to the pitcher or even by using a wooden spoon while the fruit is already in the pitcher, you are going to find that it is a delicious way to enjoy the sangria.

Tip #5 — Add Some Liquor

One of the things that are going to help make the sangria better is to add liquor. There is a wide range of different types of liquors that you can add to the sangria. The best thing to remember about the liquor is that you want to ensure that it is the type of liquor that is going to enhance the flavors of the sangria.

If you are going to be using lemons, you can choose limoncello or another lemon liquor. If you want to add oranges, consider Grand Marnier or another orange liquor. When adding apple, you can pick up an apple vodka. There are so many ways to add liquor that it is not going to be that hard. Keep in mind that you will not want to add more than one cup of liquor in the sangria. This is going to enhance the flavor and add more alcohol to your cocktail.

Tip #6 — Consider the Juice

Of course, as it was stated before when talking about juice, it is always best to use freshly squeezed juice. By adding the juice of the fruits that you are adding in you are going to greatly increase the overall flavor of the fruit. The thing that is going to be hard when you are doing this is that you have to think about the fruit juice when you add it.

Juices like apple juice do not have a lot of flavors so you will have to add more juice to get the flavor profile that you want. However, when it comes to juices like lemon or lime, the flavors are huge. So, you will want to use juices like these sparingly.

Tip #7 — Consider Adding Some Sparkle

If you are using sparkling wine, you will be able to skip this. Remember that you have to pre macerate your fruit with a sparkling wine sangria. This means that you let the flavors muddle well and soak up. Then you will simply add your sparkling wine just before serving. If you add the sparkling wine too early, you are going to find that the wine is not going to sparkle any longer.

Now, if you have used regular wine, you are going to have to think of a way to add sparkle. If you want to add sparkle and flavor or sparkle and sugar you can use a club soda or a lemon-lime soda. However, if you just want to add the sparkle you can use tonic water or even carbonated water. This will all allow you to have a delicious drink. The same thing is true of the sparkling additive in that you are going to be able to add it in at the end.

Sangria, the New “Healthy” Cocktail

While some might claim that any alcohol is unhealthy, there are those who maintain that sangria is a healthy way to drink alcohol. To be fair when talking about sangria we wanted to mention this idea and discuss it a bit. Of course, drinking alcohol in excess is not healthy for the body. In fact, it is actually very unhealthy to drink large quantities of alcohol on a frequent basis.

However, there is some basis to the idea that sangria is a healthy cocktail and here is the reason why. Sangria is most notably made with red wine. Drinking red wine is known for being healthy when consumed in moderation (this means drinking 4 ounces a day). There are actually some health benefits to red wine.

Red wine includes small amounts of antioxidants. These have been linked to a number of health benefits. The main one is that it helps to reduce your risk of heart disease and heart attack. The biggest thing that you have to remember is that you do not get the benefits if you are only drinking moderately and not in excess. If you start to drink in excess, even if you are only drinking red wine, you will have an increased risk of heart disease.

There is another reason that sangria is considered to be a healthy cocktail and that is because it is made with a nice variety of different fruits. The fruit is very good for your health and consuming numerous types of fruits is a good idea to get many of the vitamins and minerals that you need. Sangria is a good choice since you are going to be consuming fresh fruit along with your wine. There are two common ways in which sangria is used, by juicing the fruit or placing pieces of cut up fruit inside the sangria.

Now, remember that it is always a good rule of thumb to squeeze your own fresh fruit juice instead of buying the fruit juice that you find in bottles at the supermarket. Not only will this give your sangria a better flavor, but it will also give you additional nutrients that do not come in the store bought bottles of juice.

The best thing about sangria is that after you have followed a few recipes and gotten a good idea for how to make it, you will be able to start creating your own versions.

Does Sangria Taste Sweet?

There is no simple way to explain the flavors of sangria. They are often times sweet, but not overly sweet like you might at first expect. Sangria can be sweet but at the same time, it is often not overly sweet. One of the things that makes the sangrias that you purchase on the market so sweet is that added sugars are added. By making your own sangria, you are in control of how sweet the drink is. If you are drinking sangria out, you can ask if it is sweeter or drier. If they tell you that it is drier, you can rest assured that it is not too sweet.

The reason that sugar is often added to this type of cocktail is that it is going to be more appealing to many types of people. Let’s be honest, most people enjoy drinking overly sweetened beverages thanks to the soft market industry. This will help to balance out the fruit and wine and keep the natural acidity levels where they are more acceptable for all palates.

Just remember when making your own sangria that the art of sangria is about balance. The drink should be as sweet as you want it, but should also highlight the flavors of the wine and the fruits. The best way to ensure that your sangria tastes the best is by ensuring that you are choosing the best high-quality ingredients. Just keep tasting your sangria when you are adding sugar and stop before you add too much. Remember that while you cannot remove sugar, you can always add more.

Frequently Asked Questions
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How long can sangria be stored?

With wine, you have almost a week to finish a bottle, but with sangria, you have pieces of fruit that might go bad before that. From the day you prepare the sangria adding the fruits to the wine, it can be stored in refrigeration for 3 days top.

Is Sangria better the longer it sits?

As we mentioned before, the life of the fruit is shorter than the wine. It might be common to think that the longer the sangria sits, it gets better, but actually, this might not be true. One night on the refrigerator, would be enough for the fruit to infuse the wine and add that punch of flavor.

What can you do with leftover sangria?

It might happen that at the end of your sangria batch there are some fruit leftovers. If you don’t want to waste those amazingly soaked fruits, you can blend them into a thick puree and enjoy them with some toast of crackers.

Conclusion

Creating the perfect sangria does not have to be a mystery. In fact, you are perfectly capable of creating the sangria that you have always dreamed of. There are a wide range of different types of sangrias out there and literally thousands of recipes when you are looking. A great sangria is one of the things that many people love to enjoy.

While the legend states that sangria was brought to the United States for the World’s Fair in the 1900s, the true history behind sangria is quite different. Historians actually believe that sangria has been around since the 15th century.

Sangria is an alcoholic beverage that you will be able to enjoy at family gatherings, parties, and elsewhere. By learning how to create your own delicious sangrias, you are taking things in your hands. There is a wide range of wines that you can pick from and we have outlined our personal favorites from each category for creating delicious sangrias.

Whether you are looking for a red, white, rose, or sparkling wine; our top picks are sure to please. Just do not forget that picking a style or type of wine that you hate and trying to make yourself like it by turning it into sangria is something that you are never going to like. You need to choose your favorite wines and turn them into delicious sangrias

Further read:

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