Difficulty 1/5
Now that it’s December and we start organizing gatherings with friends and family to celebrate the upcoming holidays, I feel that sparkling wine is the best to say “cheers” with. However, this doesn’t mean that we have to drink it on its own, right? In this post I bring you 5 cocktails (some even with gin) that you can make in your gatherings for something more fun and different. The sparkling wine I used is Asti, which is quite sweet, so if you don’t find this one, ask which other you could use that is sweet. I did this so you don’t have to make sugar syrups all the time but rather use the sweetness contained in the wine. Before you start, make sure that your wine is VERY VERY COLD.
Portions: all recipes make 4 glasses, but the in the procedure I’ll tell you in “parts” how much of the glass should be each component so that you adapt it to your glass size and shape
1. APPLE AND SPICES
– 1 Granny Smith apple
– 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
– 2 whole cloves
– 1 tsp sugar
– To decorate: Juice from 1/2 lemon
– 2 tbsp brown sugar / demerara sugar
– Asti sparkling wine
Peel the apple and then you can cut it in cubes or do like I did and use a melon baller to get these spheres. 
Whatever’s left of the apple we remove the core and cut it to give more flavour to our syrup (which actually doesn’t have much sugar). Put all the ingredients in a pot and fill it with water until it covers the apples. Let it boil for about 10min or until the apple balls are soft. Be careful not to overcook them or they will turn to mush! Remove the balls and they go to the fridge until you use them.
With the remainders of the apple inside the water so they release more flavour, let the liquid boil until it has reduced by half, and then pas it through a sieve and chill the liquid, which is the part we’re using.
For the edge to have this golden feel, we used brown sugar and lemon juice that we put in separate plates. First you dunk the glasses’ edge in the lemon and then in the sugar so it sticks. It’s important that you do this BEFORE putting the ingredients in. For the preparation, we use some apple balls per glass, one part apple and cinnamon syrup and 5 parts sparkling wine.
2. RASPBERRY BELLINI
– 270g raspberries (fresh or frozen) + more to decorate
– Asti sparkling wine
– optional: mint leaves to garnish
– For the edge: juice from 1/2 lemon, 30g sugar and 1 drop of red food colouring
For the edge, put one drop of red food colouring in the sugar and mix well. Dunk the edge of the glass in lemon juice put on a plate and then do the same into the sugar on a plate. It’s important that you do this before mixing the cocktail.
Then it gets really simple! You just need to blend the raspberries and pass them through a sieve to remove the seeds. There’s no need to add sugar because of the sweetness of the wine. You finally mix 1 part raspberry juice with 4 parts wine and garnish with some floating raspberries.
3. GIN & SPARKLING WINE WITH CUCUMBER, MINT AND BLUEBERRIES
– 1 cucumber
– 80g blueberries
– 12 mint leaves (3 per glass)
– Juice form 1 lemon + 1 lemon to slice and garnish
– Gin
– Asti sparkling wine
We’re going to do something similar to a mojito but without the sugar. We put mint, a bit of lemon and the blueberries in each glass and we smash them up so they release their smell and flavour. If you don’t have anything to smash them with, you can put all of it in a bowl and use the back of a fork to crush them. For the cucumber, I cut it in half and made strips using a peeler, which I added to he glasses after smashing the other ingredients.
So we put the cucumber in, lots of ice, one part gin and 5 parts sparkling wine and done! Yummy! Don’t forget to put a couple whole blueberries and a slice of lemon in there 🙂
4. MIMOSA WITH GINGER
– 260ml orange juice (approx 4 oranges)
– 100g ginger
– Asti sparkling wine
– Sprinkles or brown sugar to decorate the edge + juice from 1 lemon (optional) Also optional another orange to slice for the edge.
Peel and cut the ginger in slices and put it in a pot with the oran juice to boil until it’s 1/4 of its original volume. Remove the ginger and put the liquid to cool (get it really cold). To decorate the edge, put sugar (like we did with the one with the apples) or sprinkles on a flat plate and on another put the lemon juice. Dunk the glass edge in the lemon juice first so it gets wet and then repeat with the sprinkles. Finally we put 1 part orange and ginger syrup with 6 parts sparkling wine.
5. GIN & SPARKLING WINE WITH ROSEMARY AND GRAPEFRUIT
– 2 rosemary sprigs + more to decorate
– 240ml grapefruit juice (aprox 4 fruits)
– Asti sparkling wine
Put the sprigs in a mortar or bowl with a bit of juice rom the grapefruit. Crush it with the pestle or the back of a fork against the walls of the bowl. Don’t overdo it or it wll be too strong. Then we pass the juice through a fine sieve and mix it with the rest of the grapefruit juice. Finally mix 1 part gin, 1 part juice and 4 parts sparkling wine, with lots of ice.
I loved these cocktails! In fact, I made a couple more that I didn’t really love, and so these are the best of the best. Tell me in the comments below what you think and which you’re thinking of doing for your next gathering :). Happy Holidays!