Five red wine cocktails

Staying true to the theme, I wanted to feature on red wine in cocktails. I myself am a huge fan of red wine and have often been saddened by its use in cocktails, or its lack there of.
There are a lot of possibilities in red wine to add flavour or sweetness, if not bitterness to a cocktail.
The first cocktail I’ll be making is one of my own invention (unless some one did it before me) that I like to call Smoked Wine, where I’ll be using red wine syrup.

I for example can not count the time where I have been working at a bar and someone forgot to mark an open bottle of red wine (white or even a bottle of prosecco) or hidden it somewhere, where it will not be found before it turns bad, so instead of throwing it out, I figured I should put it to use.

Now, red wine syrup or wine syrups are very easy to make. You can collect and make it out of all different types of wine blended together. In the end you will be mixing it with sugar and while you will still be keeping a lot of the good notes of the wine, you will also be making it so much sweeter.

Let’s say I have 1 L of red wine, I will stir it together with 1 kg of sugar (white, though the type of sugar is completely up to you). You don’t really have to heat up the wine to mix it with the sugar unless you really want to get as much of the alcohol out before you do. The acids in the wine will take care of dissolving it just fine all by it self.

So here it is,

Five red wine cocktails

The Smoked Wine
50 ml Mezcal

20 ml red wine syrup

15 ml lemon

2 dsh. Angostura Bitters
Lemon peel for garnish

I throw the drink 5 times since I don’t want to get as much dilution as I would be getting from shaking the drink, plus I want to get some air into it.

I serve it in a coupette or a cocktail glass with one big ice cube and finish it off with a lemon peel.

This drink is smokey. Dry with a lot of citrus notes that go perfectly with the sweetness and the flavour that the red wine syrup brings to the table.

Next up will be the New York Sour.

A nice little twist on the Whiskey Sour, thought to be invented in the 1880’s in Chicago where it was originally called the Continental Sour, the Southern Whiskey Sour before taking on it’s modern name after gaining it’s popularity in Manhattan.

The New York Sour is a classic Whiskey Sour with a float of red wine.

I prefer mine though just like my Whiskey Sour, with Rye over Bourbon and just a touch of Cointreau or Triple Sec. Remember that the egg white is optional.

New York Sour

60 ml rye whiskey

30 ml lemon

15 ml sugar syrup (I use a slightly thicker sugar syrup than the normal 1:1, So maybe, 20-25ml of sugar for the ones using that)
1bsp. Cointreau

1 egg white

red wine float

Orange peel for garnish
Dry shake ( if you went with the egg white) and then shake again with ice before fine straining it into a chilled rocks glass filled with ice. Remember to leave some room for the red wine. Adding the red wine is easy, you simply place your bar spoon in the drink and gently pour the red wine so it makes a nice red line on top of the drink (under the egg white).

Now on to a little taste of Christmas. To soon?
Here it’s the middle of November and everything is covered in snow. It brings out (at least in me) the longing for Christmas drinks, food and mood. So I decided to start with a drink at least.

The Red Flip

60 ml red wine (of your choice, I used a Pinot Noir)

30 ml dark rum

2 bsp. sugar syrup

1 dsh. chocolate bitters

1 whole egg

Dry shake and then again with ice before fine straining it into a ice cold cocktail glass. Then finish it of with grated nutmeg over the top of the drink. This drink is a fantastic nightcap, sweet, dry and packed with flavours.

While making this list I thought I would have one drink made on the spot. I got my photographer to name two spirits to work with along side the red wine. Then I thought I would do another drink without alcohol for those that choose not to drink.

Rested Wine
50 ml Reposado Tequila

20 ml red wine (Pinot Noir)

20 ml Cointreau

15 ml lemon

1 bsp. Café Patron XO

1 dsh. chocolate bitters

1 dry sugared orange peel/orange peel for garnish

Combine all the ingredients into a shaker and shake with ice before fine straining the drink into a Martini glass (can also be a rocks glass) over a big ice cube.

This drink was surprisingly fresh. There are a lot of lovely aromas. The mix between the tequila, red wine, Cointreau, the coffee and the chocolate was absolutely delightful.

Minus Wine

30 ml red wine syrup

30 ml lemon

2 dsh. Aromatic Bitters

top with soda water

A lemon peel for garnish

Combine all these ingredients into a glass of your choice (I used a fancy champagne glass) filled with ice. Give it a good stir, so that the syrup, the juice and the soda all blend well together. Then garnish it with a lemon peel.

Now if you don’t feel like spending your money on a cheap bottle of red wine just to mix it with sugar or boiling it up just to get rid of the alcohol before you do. There is always the option of buying a bottle of none alcoholic red wine using that for your syrup.

I myself have not tried it for that purpose, but I can say that there are definitely good bottles of non alcoholic red wine out there that should work just fine for both the syrup. Even if you want to use it to make some fruity, red wine sinalco drinks.

Bjartur Daly Þórhallsson, bartender and manager Rosenberg, Iceland