Highballs and long drinks · Wine
A glass of white wine, a splash of fizzing water and a few ice cubes: that is all. The bubbles lift the wine's fruit and acidity, and the lower strength makes it a drink for long, warm afternoons.
4 oz
dry white wine or rosé
2 oz
soda water or sparkling mineral water
Garnish: Lemon wheel (optional) · Ice: Ice cubes
Spritzer
Crisp, dry and lightly sparkling with fresh fruit and acidity from the wine. Roughly two thirds the strength of the wine alone.
Wine mixed with sparkling water is at home in Central Europe. Germans call it Schorle or Weinschorle, Austrians G'spritzter and Hungarians fröccs, and all three countries have a strong claim to the tradition. It spread in the nineteenth century, when carbonated water became widely available.
A popular Hungarian story links the word fröccs to the inventor Ányos Jedlik, who worked on producing soda water, and the poet Mihály Vörösmarty in the 1840s. Like many drink stories it is told more often than it can be proven.
The English name spritzer comes from the German spritzen, to spray or splash. In the United States the wine spritzer became a popular light drink in the 1970s and 1980s. It is also the ancestor of many modern wine highballs, from the Tinto de Verano to the Spritz.
Usually two to three parts wine to one part soda water. For a lighter drink, use half and half.
A dry, fresh, unoaked white such as Riesling, Grüner Veltliner or Pinot Grigio.
A spritzer is wine and soda water. A Spritz adds a bitter aperitivo such as Aperol, usually with sparkling wine.
The perfect sound
Easygoing wine garden afternoon.
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