Here’s summer drinking at its simplest
Classic wine cocktail embodies the spirit of the season.
The path of high-summer cocktail hour matches the ease and pace of its season: Open the refrigerator, take out a bottle, relish the cold condensation in your hand, pour, mix, drink.
Nothing embodies that spirit quite like wine cocktails, which take little more effort than remembering where you last set down the corkscrew.
Start with a kir. Served chilled and made from only two ingredients — crisp, dry white wine and crème de cassis, a black currant liqueur — a kir mixes itself directly in the glass. Its low-alcohol content is an open invitation to go the length of the sunset and drink two.
A classic wine cocktail from the Burgundy region of France, the kir gets its name from Félix Kir, a priest, World War II resistance fighter and mayor of Dijon. Legends about its origin abound. Some cry marketing ploy, theorizing that the drink was meant to give aligoté, the region’s far less famous white, a fighting chance against its chardonnay and red Burgundy. Others maintain its rise was an act of resistance: a redhued drink in defiance of Nazi confiscation of highly prized red Burgundy during the war. Still others say the mayor simply liked the local cocktail, often serving it to visitors, some of whom brought it home to make and drink.
When the proportions are right, a kir is refreshingly tart and lightly sweet. When the black currant liqueur is poured with too heavy a hand, the drink veers sickly sweet, reminiscent of another seasonally apropos yet little loved wine cocktail, this one with 1980s American origins: the wine cooler.
The cooler’s combination of still wine and sweetened fruit juice (and sometimes soda water) was originally targeted at carefree Southern California beachgoers and healthconscious baby boomers, with an emphasis on women. In its decline, the cloyingly sweet drink became a choice buzz for underage drinkers.
Today, the oft-maligned cocktail has been making a comeback through cans like those from the sommelier Jordan Salcito’s brand Ramona. But a fresh cooler can be easily made using a bottle of your favorite white, red or rosé — mom jeans optional.
Whether you’re making a kir or a cooler (or sangria or kalimotxo or tinto de verano, or any other wine-based cocktail), note the main ingredient: wine. Too often, wine cocktails are cover-ups for flawed or nearly turned bottles. This leads to lackluster drinks and quick-toarrive hangovers.
“Start with a wine you want to drink on its own,” said Erin Sylvester, one of the owners of Sylvester/Rovine Selections, a Californiabased wine distributor. “I want to drink wines that are farmed organically and fermented with natural yeast, so I’m going to follow these inclinations.”
But in the height of summer, simplify. Drop the last few ounces of that well-loved, well-chilled bottle so often found in your fridge into a kir or cooler. Or uncork something fresh and start the evening with a wine cocktail before pouring straight glasses. Who knows, you might be moved to linger a few drinks longer.
KIR
Yield: 1 drink Scant ½ ounce crème de cassis 5 to 6 ounces dry white wine, chilled
1. In a wineglass, combine the cassis and wine. Serve immediately.
ROSÉ COOLER
Yield: 1 drink 4 ounces dry to demi-sec rosé ¾ ounce fresh lime juice 2 ounces soda water
4 thyme sprigs
Crème de cassis (optional)
1. In an ice-filled lowball glass, combine the rosé and lime juice. Top with soda water. Place the thyme in one hand and use the other to lightly slap the stems. Add to the glass. Depending on how sweet your rosé is, finish with a few drops of cassis. Serve immediately.