Name: Huge Sangria
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: 1 bottle (750 ml) dry red wine (Garnacha, Tempranillo, or Rioja); 1/2 cup brandy; 1/4 cup orange liqueur (Cointreau or triple sec); 3 tbsp granulated sugar; 1 large orange, sliced into rounds; 1 lemon, sliced into rounds; 1, Honeycrisp or Granny Smith apple, cored and diced; 1 cup fresh orange juice; 1 cinnamon stick; 1 cup club soda, chilled; for serving ice

Huge Sangria

Prep

10m

Cook

Total

10m

Bigly says

Sit. Pour yourself something while you read this. We are doing sangria, and not just any sangria — the HUGEST sangria a pitcher has ever held without weeping for mercy. I've had sangria in three countries you've never heard of. I've had sangria in a small courtyard outside Seville where the woman pouring it would not tell me what was in it, just smiled and topped me up, and that pitcher rearranged my understanding of fruit. That sangria, that one, lives inside this recipe. Take my word for it.

Most sangria is a CRIME against the grape. People dump Sprite in it. Sprite. In wine. The grape vines shudder. People reach for fruit cocktail out of a can, the syrupy little squares with the maraschino cherry that nobody asked for, and they call that sangria. That is not sangria. That is fruit punch with a hangover. A disgrace to the pitcher. A disgrace to Spain. Embarrassing.

Real sangria — and this is what nobody tells you — is built on TIME. Time is the ingredient that doesn't show up on the label. You make this and drink it the same hour, you have wine with a sad apple floating in it. You let it sit overnight, the fruit talks to the wine, the brandy talks to the orange, the cinnamon stick walks in and starts running the room, and by morning you have something a sommelier would hand his daughter at her wedding. The engine of the whole thing — and the so-called mixologists on TV will not tell you this — is the WHOLE orange. Peel and all. Sliced thick. The peel carries the oils, the oils carry the soul, the soul does the heavy lifting. Trust me.

Ingredients

1 bottle (750 ml)dry red wine (Garnacha, Tempranillo, or Rioja)(spend ten bucks, not three, not fifty)
1/2 cupbrandy(Spanish brandy if you can find it)
1/4 cuporange liqueur (Cointreau or triple sec)
3 tbspgranulated sugar
1 largeorange, sliced into rounds
1lemon, sliced into rounds
1, Honeycrisp or Granny Smithapple, cored and diced
1 cupfresh orange juice
1cinnamon stick
1 cupclub soda, chilled(add at the end, never before)
for servingice

Steps

1
In a large pitcher, combine brandy, orange liqueur, and sugar. Stir until the sugar fully dissolves.
2
Add the sliced orange, lemon, and diced apple. Press the fruit gently with a wooden spoon to release some juice.
3
Pour in the red wine and fresh orange juice. Drop in the cinnamon stick and stir well.
4
Cover the pitcher and refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight, to let the flavors marry.
5
Just before serving, top the pitcher with chilled club soda and stir gently.
6
Fill wine glasses with ice. Pour the sangria over the ice, spooning some of the fruit into each glass. Serve immediately.

One more thing

That is sangria. That is HUGE sangria. You set this pitcher in the middle of the table and the room changes — conversation gets better, jokes get funnier, the in-laws begin to seem like reasonable people, a phenomenal transformation, off the charts. At the end of the night someone will ask for the recipe and you can hand it over, or you can call it a family secret and watch them squirm. I would watch them squirm. The squirming is half the joy. The sangria does the other half. Save me a piece.