How to Make Sangria - The Basics on QVC

Sangria is a wonderful way to enjoy wine in the summertime, or any time of year for that matter. Let me show you how to make it. Sangria is a Spanish drink that combines wine and fruit, fortifies it with spirit and some orange liqueur. First things first, it's a Spanish drink, so let's talk about the wine. Preferably a Spanish wine, so a Rioja or Tempranillo is a great wine to use. If you don't have either of those on hand, you can use any fruity wine that you like. Zinfandel, Malbec, Merlot, those are all great choices. I also have some orange liqueur, and I'm going to use rum as my spirit to fortify this drink. You could also use brandy if you like. Let's talk about the fruit. I'm going to use, traditionally, apple and orange. Because I'm going to not peel these fruit, I'm going to give them a wash first. Slice it up into small pieces. Transfer the apple to a big pitcher, and then we're going to cut the orange. If you think that your guests are going to want to eat all the orange, then you're going to peel it first. Instead, however, for me, I just slice this in half, slice the halves in half, and then slice little 1 quarter inch slices. The peel is going to add a little bit of a sharp tang, a bitterness to the sangria that I enjoy. Okay, it's already starting to look pretty. We're going to just mash this fruit around a little bit to sort of break it up. Now we're going to add our orange liqueur, and we're going to add our rum or brandy. Mash the fruit again, and pour in a bottle of that Spanish wine. One more good stir. Now here's a really important step. We want the sangria to rest in the refrigerator for about four hours. This is to let the flavors mellow a little bit. If you taste it now, and then taste it in four hours time, you'll know what I'm talking about. Everything mellows and becomes more well-rounded. Four hours later, here comes the fun part. Take your sangria out of the refrigerator, and it's time to taste it. Now what we're tasting for is how sweet is this. Do we need to sweeten it up? That is so delicious and refreshing, but I think it does need just a touch of sweetener. If you're going to sweeten this, use something called simple syrup, which is equal parts water and sugar boiled together until the sugar is dissolved and then fully chilled. You'll probably need one to two ounces of simple syrup in this mixture. One good stir, and now it's time to serve it. Bring some ice over, and put the ice directly into the glasses. That makes it much easier to pour. Be sure to scoop out some of that fruit and add it to each glass. And then if you like, top it with another little garnish, a couple blackberries. Last step is completely optional, but you can top the sangria with a little bit of soda water if you like. That will give it a little sparkle. Now this is just a basic sangria. You can change this up any way you like. Make a white sangria with white wine and use peaches and grapes. Even pineapple will be delicious in a sangria. Salut!