Sangria Night

[Thumper]

One of Mrs. T's and my favorite nice restaurant held a sangria tasting and tapas night. We took a couple that we hang out with alot who hadn't been there. They paired up 3 sangrias (Standard White, Peach, and Standard Red) with 3 very small plates. We had fun. I don't drink alot of sangria or wine so it was a change of pace.
After it was over, instead of staying and spending $100 bucks on dinner, we took our friends to another old hangout favorite that was just a few blocks away. Kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum. More of a casual family/sporting/neighborhood favorite. Great pizza there and at least one draft that I like.
The first place gave us the recipes of all their sangrias including spicy, and watermelon. We may try to make one or two this summer especially if we have a small gathering. They were light, flavorful and refreshing and you can water them down as much as you want so if you don't like them too strong or prefer not to get skunk drunk.

[Rommie]

Sangrias are great! But avoid the very cheap ones, they often just pour sugar into bad wine and water it down.

In Hungary, it's very popular to do wine spritzers, which are pretty similar in concept. The crazy thing is all of the various ratios have different names, sorta like any cocktail- 5:3 wine:spritzer for example is the "master of the house."

[Thumper]

That's interesting. Back in the day, up on the islands of Lake Erie, they made some cheap wine of the labrusca varieties. You could choke them down and tell yourself you were drinking good wine in an exotic island location. Or you could have them take a pitcher, throw in some fruit and simple syrup, pour in a bottle of wine and top with sprite. Then you had an exotic "island cooler." And after a few of those that went down like kool-aid, you'd call them Mind Erasers.

I should point out that both the wine quality and diversity in the Lake Erie region has vastly improved.

[geonuc]

I admit I probably have an outdated impression from my youth when I consumed crap sangria or more likely, Boonesfarm Strawberry Hill.

It actually sounds like a nice refreshing summer drink.

[Thumper]

Ha, we reminisced between flights about the old days of Boone's Farm, Mad Dog, and boxes of cheap wine.

[SciFiFisher]

Buy the cheapest red wine you can find. Add 7-Up. Drink in quantity. That seems to be what I recall from my Wine Flip days.

[Thumper]

That's jogging my memory.

[Rommie]

That's interesting. Back in the day, up on the islands of Lake Erie, they made some cheap wine of the labrusca varieties. You could choke them down and tell yourself you were drinking good wine in an exotic island location. Or you could have them take a pitcher, throw in some fruit and simple syrup, pour in a bottle of wine and top with sprite. Then you had an exotic "island cooler." And after a few of those that went down like kool-aid, you'd call them Mind Erasers.

I should point out that both the wine quality and diversity in the Lake Erie region has vastly improved.

My brother's bachelor party is in Erie next weekend, and includes a wine tour, and bf is going too. We'll see what they have to say about that!

[Loresinger]

two words: Carlo Rossi

[Thumper]

Andre, Carlo Rossi, Barefoot and Boone's Farm all now owned by our friends the Gallo brothers!
How many millions of gallons of jug wine chugging are they responsible for each year?