About This Recipe
A cookout drink has one job: cut through the plate. Tri tip comes off the red oak rich, fatty, and smoky, and a heavy pour does not stand up to that. A cold, citrus-forward red sangria does. Acid and chill against fat and smoke. That is the whole idea.
Build it on a Central Coast red. This is Santa Barbara County wine country, so a young Syrah or Grenache is both the right flavor and the right story. Keep it dry: the fruit and a little citrus do the sweetening, and too much sugar stops it cutting and starts coating.
Make it ahead and make a lot. Build it the night before, chill it hard, and pour it over ice while the tri tip rests. It carries a crowd without you tending a bar.
Sangria buys you time, and time is exactly what the fire needs. Build it the night before, then set out guacamole and pico de gallo with a bowl of chips while the tri tip cooks. People get something cold in one hand and something to eat in the other the minute they walk up, and nobody ends up hovering over the grill asking how much longer.
The recipe
Central Coast Sangria
A dry red sangria built on a Central Coast wine, with citrus and not too much sugar. The pitcher that cuts the fat and smoke of red-oak tri tip.
Ingredients
- 1 bottle Central Coast red wine (Syrah or Grenache)
- 1/4 cup brandy
- 2 tablespoons orange liqueur
- 1 orange, sliced
- 1 lemon, sliced
- 1 cup strawberries or stone fruit, sliced
- 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar, to taste
- 1 cup soda water, to top
- Ice, to serve
Instructions
Combine the wine, brandy, orange liqueur, sliced fruit, and sugar in a large pitcher.
Note Use a young, fruit-forward red, not an oaky one. Save the special bottle for the glass.
Chill at least 2 hours, ideally overnight, so the fruit macerates and the flavors marry.
Note Overnight is better. The fruit sweetens the wine naturally, which is why you go light on the sugar.
Top with soda water and serve over ice, spooning some fruit into each glass.
Note The soda lifts it and keeps it from feeling heavy at midday.
Nutrition Facts
Per serving
- Calories
- 120
- Protein
- 0 g
- Fat
- 0 g
- Sat. Fat
- 0 g
- Carbs
- 10 g
- Fiber
- 1 g
- Sodium
- 5 mg
- Cholesterol
- 0 mg
Values are estimates based on standard ingredients and serving sizes.