North StarGria: A Winter Sangria

Name: North StarGria: A Winter Sangria
Yield: 10
Cuisine: American

Recipe: Petr Balcarovsky , The Apparatus Room , Detroit

Photo: Courtesy of Detroit Foundation Hotel

February 05, 2024

Dry sparkling rosé complements the raspberry in this wintry wine punch.

At The Apparatus Room, a chic bar and restaurant in a former fire station in downtown Detroit, lead bartender Petr Balcarovsky makes a winter sangria with sparkling rosé wine from a cult producer. “The Franck Besson [Rosé Granit] has such pretty red fruit and acidity, balanced with that soft roundness from the Gamay grape,” Balcarovsky says of his bottle of choice. An oleo saccharum emphasizes the fruit flavors and sweetens the mix. “In my opinion, the oleo is truly an expression of natural beauty,” he says of his lemon-lime version.

Ingredients

2 oz. raspberry liqueur
1/2 oz. Lillet Blanc
1/2 oz. lemon-lime oleo saccharum
dry sparkling rosé, to top

Tools:mixing glass, barspoon, strainer
Glass:large wine
Garnish:crystallized raspberries and rosemary

Preparation

Add the raspberry liqueur, Lillet, and lemon-lime oleo saccharum to a mixing glass. Add ice and stir for 20 seconds, then strain into a large wine glass filled with fresh ice. Top with a dry sparkling rosé. Balcarovsky garnishes each glass with crystallized raspberries and rosemary that he coats in simple syrup and air-dries, but alternatively, simply skewer frozen raspberries on rosemary sprigs, or skip the garnish.

Lemon-Lime Oleo SaccharumCombine 2 oz. of superfine sugar with the peels of 2 lemons and 2 limes, mash together, then let macerate for at least six hours before straining off the syrup.