With the summer solstice arriving last week, it’s official: summer is here! Living in wine country (Sonoma County to be specific—we live just south of Healdsburg, a quintessential wine town if there ever was one), I drink a LOT of wine. Kyle and I typically drink a glass with dinner at night, and are often stopping into local wineries.
As much as I love just sipping wine, I also love to play with it in cocktails and food (dessert especially!). I had a chilled bottle of sauvignon blanc that was feeling a little neglected, and the cherries on my counter were at their peak ripeness. Sangria it was!
I can’t believe I’ve never posted a sangria recipe here! If I had to choose, I would probably favorite red sangria over white, but the warm summer months beg for a white wine or rosé sangria. I made a cherry compote using just cherries, sugar and brandy, which I think really adds something to the sangria without loading it up with a lot more booze. Top it off with fresh stone fruit and your afternoon is officially spoken for. Happy summering!
Cherry Compote & Peach Sangria
makes 4 cocktails
- 1 bottle of crisp dry white wine (I think sauvignon blanc works well here, but you could also use any dry, light white)
- 1 cup cherry compote (recipe follows)
- handful of fresh cherries
- 1 ripe peach, nectarine or similar
Assembly
To 4 wine glasses, add a healthy dollop of the cherry compote (1-2 tbsp). Fill halfway with ice. Add a few fresh cherries and a couple slices of the stone fruit. Top with white wine. Drop an extra cherry and slice of peach on top and you’re set!
Cherry Compote
adapted from Bon Appétit
- 1 cup fresh cherries, pitted and sliced in half
- 1/4 cup brandy
- 2 tbsp sugar
Bring all ingredients to a boil in a saucepan; reduce heat to low. Simmer until cherries begin to release their juices, about 10 minutes. Remove cherries from pan and let the sauce continue to thicken until it’s a syrupy consistency, about 20 minutes. Add cherries back to the sauce and store in an airtight container in the fridge. Keeps for about 2 weeks.