Last weekend when I was in Snowmass Colorado for the Snowmass Wine Festival I enjoyed a 4 course paired dinner featuring Spanish wines. During the mixer hour, Tapas and Sangria were served bringing back fond memories of a week spent in Barcelona. While there I took very descriptive notes, originally for the purpose of my daughter’s scrapbook who was 3 at the time, risking no memory of our adventure, though the travelogue has served as guidance for friends many times since. I had recorded everywhere we went and everything we ate and drank, having enjoyed every morsel!
Like me, my husband loves food and wine. He also is an incredible source of information, invoking things he’s read from myriad sources with uncanny recall. Thanks to the breadth and depth of his interest, our week on the Northeast coast of the Iberian Peninsula was dense with discovery and fabulous food. Relying on his high school Spanish (with much more impressive command than what is left of my high school French) we wound through back alleys to discrete shops cited in old issues of Saveur magazine to amass supplies to make traditional Spanish dishes including paella at home; ceramic pans, black truffles, Arborio rice, Marcona almonds still glistening from roasting in olive oil.
A definite highlight for me on our trip to Barcelona was the back alley trip to Casa Gispert, a source of fine chocolate, Spanish olive oil, black truffles, paella ingredients and nuts of all sorts. The store was marked by three larger-than-life nuts in front. The tiny person was with us!
We enjoyed good food and wine everywhere we went in every price point. I loved dining on Tapas, being one who likes ‘choices’, having a sampling of many things spoke to my explorative nature. My husband’s Spanish did us well with only one slip. At a lovely outdoor café in Barceloneta, Café En Mamel, known for its exceptional paella he ordered what he thought was a chicken dish for our daughter. With only one letter difference from a calamari dish, we ended up with a heaping plate of (delicious) squid. After 30 minutes of being told it was ‘Spanish chicken’ our daughter wasn’t buying it so we happily ate it and took her next door to the Gelataria for ice cream instead.
In addition to the beautiful Spanish wines we drank Sangria, the fruit and wine punch with long roots back in the Spanish culture. Sangria is a chilled drink having allowed select fruits to sit for some time in red wine before serving, infusing their flavors into the wine. Traditionally it is strained using a Spanish Sangria pitcher with a pinched spout and then embellished with sparkling wine, sparkling juice or sparkling water and sometimes also with brandy. There are many different recipes from those featuring summer fruits (click here for one of my warm weather favorites), to all white versions.
They say there is nothing worse than listening to someone else’s vacation! The least I could offer after toting you along on my flashback would be some sangria you can make yourself! This version really features the fruits of early autumn, made effervescent with Sparkling Pear Juice.
Autumn Sangria
Ingredients
- 4 fresh figs , quartered
- 6 small (or 3-4 large) plums, pitted and cut into wedges
- ¾ cup of dried apricots , sliced
- 2 ripe but firm pears , cored and cut into wedges
- 1 750 ml bottle of Pinot Noir (or other light red wine such as Gamay)
- 1 750 ml bottle of Sparkling Pear juice (or sparkling apple cider if pear is unavailable)
- Orange slices for garnish
Instructions
- In a 3 quart glass jar or container add all the fruit and red wine. Seal or cover and chill for 24 hours (or longer).
- If serving a large group, strain the sangria into a serving bowl and add the bottle of sparkling pear juice. Fill glasses with ice, pour in sangria and garnish with an orange slice. If preparing single servings (not using the entire batch of sangria), add equal parts of sangria and sparkling pear juice to ice filled glasses; garnish with orange slice.
Steve O says
Nothing worse than … Not try this time!
Toni | Boulder Locavore says
I hope you will try it Steve and have a good report! Thanks for popping by.
john@kitchenriffs says
Love the picture of the girl with the pink top! Very cute. This sangria is terrific. I’ve never had it with figs and plums (or dried apricots, for that matter). Excellent idea. Very autumnal indeed. Thanks for this.
Toni | Boulder Locavore says
Hi John! I love the flexibility of Sangria and how this version with the fall fruits turned out. Especially loved the sparkling pear juice which is even organic. Thanks for the kudos! And the tot in the pink top, I love that pic too (and she’s pretty great herself!); thank you!
Kirsten@ My Kitchen in the Rockies says
Toni, no, not boring at all. Can’t wait myself to go back to visit Katalonien again. It brings back lots of memories reading about your trip. Cute picture of your daughter!
Great idea to vary the fruits of the sangria to the season.
Toni | Boulder Locavore says
Thanks Kirsten. We had a great reminiscence reading the travelogue aloud to the family. My daugher did not remember much but I think enjoyed stories of the exotic Spanish men that doted over her everywhere we went. The Sangria is a a nice segue from summer to fall I think. In fact I think I’ll go have a little sip now!
Debra says
What a great idea. I always think of sangria as a summer beverage. Thanks for offering up this autumnal version.
Toni | Boulder Locavore says
Thank you Debra and you are certainly welcome. I too have thought of it that way (‘summer only’) but while the temperatures slowly decline, the nice flavors of fall with a little pep from the sparkling pear juice still feel to work! Hope you’ll try it!
Sommer@ASpicyPerspective says
Wow, I just want to dive into those plums. I bet this is wonderful!
Liz says
What’s not to love about this sangria? The figs, plums and apricots sound perfect…and topping it off with sparkling pear juice must make these extra delicious! Loving the picture of your sweet daughter by the nuts…so cute 🙂
lindsay | rosemarried says
I love sangria, in all it’s forms. But this fall version sounds particularly timely (and lovely). Thanks for sharing. Love the new blog layout/format!
Alex says
Another great recipe. Incidentally this site inspired me to buy A. J. Rathbun’s ‘Luscious Liqueurs’ and I’ve just made a batch of his blackberry liqueur from wild berries I picked near where I live. It’s still infusing at the moment but I’m looking forward to trying it out. Unfortunately we’ve had a terrible summer meaning all the local apple and pear trees are pretty bare but the local blackberries don’t seem to have fared as badly.