Clementine and Red Wine Spritzers

It’s amazing where you can find a brief vacation when there’s not actually time to get away.

Mostly all you need is a brightly colored Mexican cloth and a sunset colored cocktail.

I’m aaallll sorts of ready to let these summer days wash over me, but my reality is much more indoor work style than outdoor beach style.  Is this your reality too?  It’s cool.  It’s totally cool.  We have wine, fancy fruit soda, warm air, late sunsets, and a few good friends to share it all with.  We won’t need much more.

Can we talk about this crazy awesome spritzer combination?  Clementine aaannnddd red wine!?  It’s unexpected.  It’s a high-five.  Trust me on this one!

This seemingly abstract cocktail combination was inspired by a weekend in Austin Texas at the Hotel San Jose.  They’re clever with their cocktails, friendly in their service, and right on in their design.  Love this place!!

I love that I could take a little piece of the Hotel San Jose pool with me home to Los Angeles.

It’s totally the drink I can stand around on in a striped dress and make on a Sunday.  Welcome to my life.

This is an easy one!

Fill a tall glass with ice.  Fill the glass a third of the way full with clementine soda.

Is clementine soda just a fancy name for orange soda?  Sorta…

Fill the remainder of the glass with sparkling red wine.  Yea!!  We’re fancy and we know it!

I used a dry Lambrusco for this spritzer.  It was delicious!

My friend Whitney who knows eighteen thousand more things about wine than I do also suggests a light to medium body red, something unoaked, like a Granache, Gamay or Frapatto.  Wine words!  Get into it!

Just look at this happiness!  I love cocktail rainbows.

Actually… I think I mean rainbow cocktails.

This mixture of cold sparkling wine with sweet clementine soda is completely surprising and happily refreshing.  It’s like sangria with less fruit and more red wine.  It’s different… and I mean that totally in a good way.  If you’re having a few friends over for a few happy cocktails, this cocktail is an ingenious way to serve something beautiful and stretch your one bottle of wine to satisfy many.  Think of this drink as a delicious, rainbow party, wine stretcher.  AKA:  heck yes!!