Happy 1st of December! If you’re in the southern hemisphere you’re probably switched boots for open toe shoes and are sleeping semi naked because of the heat. This summer heat is such a blessing but it does make it a little hard to enjoy a dry red wine at room temperature. If you’re like me and feel like you’re cheating on red wine by even thinking of switching to white wine for summer, I have a solution for you.

Sangria

In 2013, I hosted a get together with friends where I made bruschetta and sangria while we played board games and got drunk. Of the 10 people that were there, 2 were red wine lovers and the rest left the party being red wine addicts. I think it’s simple: Introduce them to wine in a more inviting way. Yes, I had to sweeten and add fruit, but I was like a determined religious recruiter ready to convert people into the red wine cult. So off I drove to the bottle store and bought a box of red wine. Unfortunately, being new to the working world, the box of wine was in my budget but in no way do I condone that now.

All of the ingredients were:

• 1.5 litres of dry red wine
• 2 oranges
• 2 apples
• 3 cups of orange juice
• 1 cup of chilled sparkling water

Method:

Peel the orange and break away into segments, dice or slice the apples and remove pips and core. Add all the ingredients, except the sparkling water into a serving jug and store in the fridge overnight. Add the sparkling water just before you need to serve it and enjoy!

The flavour comes out the best when left to stew overnight but you can serve it immediately too if you like.