Sangria

I've been wanting to try making sangria for a while.  To be honest I didn't even know what it was until a few months ago until I went to Hole in the Wall for a cooking class and everyone was talking about the amazing sangria you can get there (PS - Hole in the Wall cooking class is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ahhhhhhhh so fun and delicious).  I looked it up and it sounded excellent and today I decided to see what I could do.

Apparently most/classic sangria is made with red wine, a sweetener, brandy and/or orange liqueur, and sliced fruit (apples, limes, oranges), but I searched around the internet for a bunch of different recipes and decided to use white wine instead.  I wanted to use some stone fruit which supposedly go better with a white wine, and a white wine sangria just felt more summery.

I didn't use one set recipe; I basically combined and tweaked a bunch to work with what I had on hand (and what I felt like buying).  My final combination was approximately as follows:

1 bottle pinot grigio
1 shot brandy
Less than a cup of orange juice
About 1/3 cup of sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1 lime, thinly sliced
1 large navel orange, sliced
1 peach, sliced into small sections
1 large plum, sliced into small sections
10 large, fresh mint leaves
Carbonated water with lime flavour

I mixed everything except the carbonated water together and chilled it for about 4-5 hours - the mint was an afterthought which I added in the last hour but next time I'll add it at the beginning.  My peach and plum were also not entirely ripe since I bought them today.  I generally prefer nectarines over peaches but the nectarines at the store were rock hard - next time I should definitely buy my stone fruit a few days ahead of time so it can ripen up a bit.

To serve, I put a couple of ice cubes in a glass, filled it about 1/3 with the carbonated water and then filled the rest of the glass with the sangria, although a person could fiddle with that ratio based on how boozy you want it to taste.  It was sooooo good ahhhhhh.  It was my first sangria experience so I'm sure it just gets better from this point, knowing some changes to make for next time.  Also we didn't quite finish the pitcher and I'm excited to try the leftovers tomorrow after it's been chilling together for over 24 hours.  I could definitely taste the difference the longer it sat this afternoon (I tried a teaspoon every hour or so to check how it was coming along).

So here is a picture of the almost empty pitcher.  It's sort of from a weird angle/perspective... anyway I am also trying to think of something creative to do with the wine-soaked fruit rather than just eating it or throwing it out.  Ice cream topping?  Perhaps.