White Wine Sangria
► by Bartender Kerry Farrell of Champers Wine Bar & Restaurant
Champers might be known as a wine bar, but the appeal of this fruity and sweet cocktail is that you can drink it straight through your meal, says Champers’ Head Wine Steward Rudolph Clarke.
— Photography: Kenneth Theysen
“It’s very colourful and very refreshing”, adds bartender Kerry Farrell, who’s been making cocktails at Champers for more than eight years. Whereas some of the restaurant’s champagne cocktails (like the Pama Mimosa, made with local Pama pomegranate liqueur and Piper-Heidsieck Brut Champagne) are ideal pre-dinner sunset sippers to enjoy from the patio, which juts out over the waves below, this cocktail pairs perfectly with anything with a touch of spice, like the Bajan-spiced mahi-mahi with pepper jelly or the citrus-marinated ceviche from the restaurant’s menu.
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White Wine Sangria
Makes 1 cocktail
Ingredients
1 ½ oz. vodka
1 ½ oz. peach schnapps
1 ½ oz. orange juice
1 ½ oz. pineapple juice
4 oz. Chardonnay
Dash of simple syrup
Dash of peach nectar
Dash of passion fruit nectar
¼ cup mixed, chopped seasonal fruits (e.g. strawberries, pineapple, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, orange slices and cherries)
Instructions
Combine all the ingredients in a large wine glass.
Top up the glass with ice and stir.
CHAMPAGNE COCKTAILS
Champers gets its name from Champagne, so this Pama Mimosa – a local riff on a Kir royale – is a popular way for guests to start the evening before enjoying a glass of wine or sangria, says Farrell. To make it, pour a half-ounce of pomegranate liqueur into a champagne flute and top with champagne or sparkling wine. Stir gently to give it a burgundy colour without letting too many of the beautiful bubbles escape!
BLUSHING VARIATIONS
Farrell uses a Chardonnay to make this sangria at the restaurant, but Clarke says you can also use a rosé or white Zinfandel, or even a red wine, and then balance the wine’s sweetness or dryness with more or less fruit nectar. You can also use guava or strawberry nectar in place of peach and passion fruit, or just use one, but remember to make the drink a little sweeter at first, so that it softens to perfection as the ice melts in the Barbados evening.
