sangria saves the day

What do you do when life gives you lemons? You make lemonade, of course.

And what do you do when the liquor store gives you yucky wine? Well, that’s when you make SANGRIA!!

Let’s clarify- the liquor store didn’t actually give me anything. I bought the wine with my hard earned money (well, my husband’s hard earned money but that’s neither here nor there) and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let 4 bottles go to waste just because they didn’t taste that great. Well, “that great” could be the understatement of the year. These were probably the revolting wines I’ve ever tried to date.

I’m a little depressed about this too because this means while wine selecting technique is flawed. I usually go by whichever label I find interesting. I know, I know…very novice but it’s never steered me wrong before. I’ve always chosen, at the very least, tolerable wines. I struck out all 4 times on this trip. I could barely believe my taste buds but they kept getting worse and worse as we went down the line when we did a tasting the night of my birthday. We even compared the smell of the last one to cat pee. Yea, that’s how bad it got…I’m not exaggerating. I think I might be losing my knack… 

I knew the sangria was a long shot but miraculously, it worked. I let the wine breathe for a bit and decided to completely omit the bottle that smelled like a dirty litter box cuz let’s face it, there was no hope for that one. I’ll just have to cut my losses. Ok, so without further ado..my simple, awesome, wine saving sangria… 

white peach sangria-

2-3 (standard size) bottles of white wine

Sprite

1 large can of peaches (with the juice)

1 pint of strawberries

2 gala apples

So, for the wines I used a blended white, a sauvignon blanc, and a dry chardonnay. When selecting wines make sure to not choose sweeter wines as this recipe is on the sweet side as it is, you’ll be thankful you did. It was pure luck for me that they we’re all cohesive in the sangria because I originally had no intention of mixing them. I made sure they were evenly distributed, pouring in 1 cup at a time of each until the bottles were finished. Also, the wine to sprite ratio I used was 2 cups of wine to 1 cup of sprite. It worked out well. I dumped the peaches (with the juice) into a separate bowl and mashed them a bit. Sliced up the strawberries, diced the apples and mixed them all together. I spooned the fruit mixture (be sure to get lots of juice in there, too) into a pitcher that was filled up about 2/3^rd’s of the way with wine/sprite. Mix it around a bit and wala- deliciousness in a pitcher.

This recipe may make me buy gross wine more often.