Sips & Synopsis - This Weeks Makings

• Wine Based Spritz Cocktails

• Trivia Question

• Drink of the Week - Dirty Spritz

• Mocktail Moment: Cucumber Lime Cooler

• Why Spritzes are Having a Moment

☀️ What’s in Your Glass This Week...

This week, we’re pairing sunlit vibes with wine-focused cocktails…light, bubbly, and perfect for long summer evenings.

✔️ 2 elegant wine-based spritz cocktails
✔️ 1 herb-infused mocktail with sparkle
✔️ A story about how wine spritzes fit into garden-to-glass season
✔️ Trivia & an inspiring quote to toast the moment

Time to elevate your summer sips, no citrus zester required.

Trivia Question❓

What country invented the spritz (wine + bitters + soda) in the 1800s during Austro-Hungarian rule?

Answer at the bottom of the newsletter

🍸 Drink of the Week: Dirty Spritz

Ingredients:

• 1 oz Cardamaro (or other vino-amaro)

• 1 oz fino sherry

• ½ oz olive brine (Castelvetrano)

• 2 oz extra brut Champagne (or Prosecco)

• 2 oz club soda

• Garnish: 3 olives + orange twist + spritz olive oil

Directions:

1. Fill a wine glass with ice.

2. Add Cardamaro, fino sherry, and olive brine.

3. Top with Champagne followed by club soda.

4. Gently stir.

5. Garnish with olives, an orange twist, and a spritz of olive oil.

Culinary, savory, and layered—but still light enough to sip all evening.

Now I know you may be wondering what Cardamaro is, and so was I when I first learned of this cocktail. Cardamaro is an Italian wine-based amaro (bitter liqueur) made from a base of Moscato wine and flavored most notably with cardoon (Cynara cardunculus, also known as artichoke thistle) along with a mix of other botanicals and various aromatic herbs. Unlike most traditional amari, Cardamaro is not spirit-based but wine-based (who knew? Now you do!) which gives it a gentler profile and ties it closely to the world of aromatized wines like vermouth.

🌸 Bonus Spritz: Hugo Spritz

Ingredients:

• 1.5 oz elderflower liqueur (e.g., St. Germain)

• 8 mint leaves, gently muddled

• 2 oz Prosecco

• 2 oz sparkling water

• Garnish: lime wheel + mint sprig

Directions:

1. In a wine glass over ice, stir elderflower liqueur and mint.

2. Add Prosecco and sparkling water.

3. Garnish and enjoy.

A balance of floral sweetness and fizzy zest—refreshingly light.

🌿 Mocktail Moment: Cucumber Lime Cooler

• 1 oz lime juice

• 0.5 oz simple syrup

• 3 slices cucumber

• Sparkling water to top

• Garnish: cucumber ribbon + mint

Muddle cucumber with lime juice and syrup, stir over ice, top with bubbles. This is my favorite go-to muddler these days: Wood Cocktail Muddler 

Why Spritzes Are Having a Moment

There's nothing like the taste of summer in a glass: bubbles, a whisper of sweetness, and just enough bitterness to wake up your palate. Enter the wine spritz, a drink born at the intersection of carefree and classy.

The Dirty Spritz, originally popularized by Wine Enthusiast's cocktail scene, combines wine, savory bitters, brine, and bubbles into something unexpectedly elegant. It’s for people craving a drink that’s complex - but still crushable.

Meanwhile, the Hugo Spritz is a floral blend of elderflower liqueur, prosecco, soda, and mint - and is all about effortless refreshment and modern chic.

This week, we’re leaning into both: one salty-sparkly, one floral-fresh—and each tastes like a mini-staycation.