Holiday Cocktails with Sparkle

This month’s issue of New Jersey Monthly is all about cocktails. Here are some additional ideas if you'd like to add some sparkle to the holidays with a sparkling wine cocktail.

When making a sparkling wine cocktail, I choose a quality wine that I would drink on its own, but I do not go overboard with an expensive bottle. The mixers can mask the subtle aromas and flavors that allow producers to charge a premium price for their Champagne or sparkling wines. I don't want a $50 bottle of Champagne being overshadowed by a 2-cent squirt of lemon juice. Instead, I opt for sparkling wines in the $10 to $20 price range, such as a Cava from Spain, Prosecco from Italy or a sparkling wine from the U.S.

Here are a few of my favorite sparkling wine cocktails:

Spanish Fly - Chill a martini glass. Shake 2 ounces of vodka, 1/2 ounce of lemon juice and 1/2 ounce of Cointreau in a cocktail shaker. Pour into the glass and top with 3 ounces of Cava.

Classic Champagne Cocktail - Invented in 1899 and introduced at the New York cocktail competition that year, this drink was originally called the Business Brace. Place a sugar cube at the bottom of a Champagne flute and add 2-3 dashes of bitters until the cube is dissolved. Add 1 ounce of brandy and fill the glass with sparkling wine or Champagne.

Aperol Spritz - In a Champagne flute, pour 2 parts Aperol (a bitter orange liqueur), 3 parts Prosecco and a splash of chilled seltzer. Garnish with a lemon twist. This drink can also be served in a tall glass over ice.

Cham-Cham (aka Kir Imperial) - Pour 2/3 ounce of Chambord (a black raspberry liqueur) into a Champagne flute, fill the rest of the glass with sparkling wine or Champagne.

Tags: Cocktails