How to Make Sweet Red Wine Sangria
/The recipe for an easy, sweet, and fruity red wine sangria perfect for a crowd
Easy Red Wine Sangria
I’ve never made Sangria before but boy did I knock it out of the park on Saturday night!
This sweet and fruity red wine sangria is easy to make and perfect for a crowd #winetime #redwinesangria #sangriarecipe
What Sangria is made of
Sangria is a traditional Spanish drink, a wine-based punch, that typically combines red wine with chopped fruit, along with other ingredients and sometimes other spirits.
The base is always red wine (unless you are making a white wine sangria of course), something to add a fruity or sweet flavour (like local fruits, sugar, or orange juice), and maybe a little something to boost the alcohol content (Brandy, Cointreau, and flavoured liqueurs seem popular). Some recipes add sparkling water or lemon-lime soda.
Fruit you can put in Sangria
Apples
Oranges
Pears
Lemons
Limes
Pineapple
Strawberries
Blueberries
Blackberries
Thinly sliced apples, oranges, pears, lemons, and limes are great fruit for Sangria. Let the fruit soak in the Sangria for two hours or overnight and go ahead and eat the fruit at the bottom of your glass! #sangria #winetime #redwinesangria
I set out specifically to make Mexican sangria (for a themed kind of night), which I’ve learned is similar, but has a higher alcohol content, making it a great pairing for spicy foods. A higher alcohol content will turn up and accentuate the heat. I read that Mexican Sangria is typically made using red wine, lime juice, sugar, and mineral water. Let’s just say I went off course!
The best red wine for Sangria
When making red wine sangria, you should be looking for a red wine that is fruity but dry, with good acidity and low in tannins, and nothing too heavy or oaky.
Spanish Rioja or Grenache have great characteristics for Sangria, fruit
Zinfandel
Fruit-driven wines like Merlot and Malbec work well too
Also consider: Inexpensive wines and left-over from the day before wines
As you can tell, Sangria recipes vary wildly, which makes it all the more fun to make. I threw caution to the wind (I’m usually a strictly by-the-recipe kind of cook in the kitchen) and melded a few different recipes I came across online. I included more of what I wanted, less of what I didn’t and landed on a sweet, red wine sangria that everyone loved. There wasn’t a scrap of sangria-soaked fruit left over, never mind a drop of punch. I think my guests would have licked the punch bowl. Who knows, maybe they did!
A bonus to making this Sangria is that I busted said punch bowl out for the first time ever (Thanks, mom! I intercepted her on the way to Value Village).
Without further ado, here is how I made my sweet red wine sangria!
My Sangria recipe
This makes a large batch of sangria, serving 10-12 people. You can easily half this recipe for a smaller serving of about 6. The nice thing about Sangria is it’s super easy to make in large quantities. It made way too much to fit in my pitcher but filled my punch bowl up nicely.
Ingredients
1 cup of sugar (one recipe I read calls for no sugar and another calls for 3/4 cup sugar. It seemed like way too much sugar once doubled so I rounded up to one cup and felt good about that)
Grated zest of one lemon (I didn’t double this up either so you can keep it the same if you are halving the recipe)
Grated zest of one orange (I didn’t double this up either so you can keep it the same if you are halving the recipe)
1 cup lemon juice
1 cup orange juice
3 cups cups mineral water
2 oranges cored and cut into thin slices
2 apples cored and cut into thin slices
2 pears cored and cut into thin slices
2 bottles of red wine (I used a home-made Malbec)
*I bought 2 lemons and 2 limes and totally forgot to slice and add them! That’s what I get for flipping between recipes. While I didn’t find this sangria too sweet, I think they would have added a citrus twist. Maybe next time!
Directions
In a saucepan, combine the sugar, zest and juices. Bring to a boil. Remove from the heat and whisk until the sugar has dissolved.
Combine this simple syrup, all the fruit, and wine into a large bowl. Chill minimum 2 hours or overnight, I had 2 hours. Just before serving add the mineral water.
Voila! A self-serve cocktail your friends can serve themselves. The dainty little glasses that come with the punch bowl were too small a serving size and not wide enough to hold the Sangria and the fruit, so we enjoyed the Sangria out of wine glasses instead. What can I say, we were thirsty!
Serve Sangria out of a punch bowl or from a pitcher. Easy to make in large quantities perfect for a crowd, Sangria will last several days in the fridge, if you can make it last that long at all! #winetime #redwinesangria #sangriarecipe
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