How to Make a Crowd Pleasing Red Sangria

Here’s a delicious, large batch red sangria cocktail recipe you can make ahead. One of the reasons sangria is perfect for entertaining is that it’ll serve a crowd AND it can be made the night before. That’s one less thing to prepare the day of the event!

red sangria

There’s so many ways to make sangria by mixing up 3 basic ingredients: wine, sugar and fruit. I just love how you can create a totally different cocktail just by changing up a few key ingredients. You can make it summery with lighter wines and using summer fruits, like this white mango peach sangria or apple peach sangria. For colder winter months, you can add spices and more wintery fruits (like pomegranate). 

What wine is best to use for red sangria? 

First off, you don’t want to use your best bottle of red (because we’re mixing it with other things) but you also don’t want to use the cheapest one either (that may not turn out the best sangria).   Instead my rule of thumb is to choose a red wine that you’d drink on its own.

Some reds that make nice sangria – obviously Spanish wines like Tempranillo or Rioja, but you could also use Merlot or Pinot Noir. In today’s recipe we’re using a Cabernet Sauvignon because well….I like a good cab sauv and that’s what I had on hand.

What fruit is best to use?

The best fruit combos come from taking cues from the tasting notes from the wine itself. If you’ve never tried the wine, look to the wine label, or do a quick online search for some hints of the fruit flavours you can expect.

In this instance, the Cabernet Sauvignon I’m using has dark berry flavours (think blackberry and cassis) It also has a touch of smoky vanilla flavour so I’m gonna work with that by adding: blackberry (duh), blueberry, apple and orange.

Ingredients

  • 1 bottle of red wine
  • 1 c Orange juice
  • ½ c orange liqueur
  • ¼ cup of sugar
  • 1 orange sliced, an apple, blueberry and blackberry
  • 12 oz sparkling water
  • sprigs of mint (optional garnish)  

Directions:

  • Start by adding fruit to the large pitcher and sprinkle with the sugar.  
  • Give it a stir and a bit of muddle just to get the juices going (don’t overdo it, we want to keep the fruit intact so it looks pretty when we pour)
  • Add the bottle of wine, orange juice and orange liqueur and give it a good stir. 
  • Set in the fridge for min. 2 hours up to overnight
  • When ready to serve, add sparkling water to pitcher.
  • Pour sangria into glasses (be sure to add scoop of fruit and garnish with fresh mint. 

Joyful Hostess Tip: One of the other reasons why I love making sangria when I’m hosting is that I can make this the night before (the longer it sits, the better the flavours meld together) so it’s one less thing I have to prepare the day of the event!