Summer Drink ’24 – June’s a River
Every year there is speculation about the new summer drink. In the end, what people really drink sill is the Aperol Spritz. However, this does not mean that you should come up with alternative summer drinks! In this case, I kept it as simple as possible.
This summer highball only uses three ingredients, besides the ice and the garnish. I think that might be a new record for me. Yes, I know nobody has olive bitters standing around, but they are just excellent if you are craving just a little salty umami note in your drink.
Dry white port
Next, I chose dry white port as the basis for my summer creation. Mainly, because I already had opened the bottle for Port & Tonics anyway. Yet, everything that comes from Quinta de la Rosa just is excellent! I also love their Reserve Port and it is my go to port wine for cocktails.
Just a bit of lemonade
To finish everything off, I topped off the ice cube filled wine glass with a little lemonade. On my first try I went with San Pellegrion Gassosa, but I now would reckomend something like Le Tribute Lemonade or Fever Tree Sicilian Lemonade. The garnish comes in the form of two citrus twists, one from a lemon and the other from a grapefruit.
Top off with Lemonade
Build – chilled wine glass over ice cubes – top off with lemonade;
Garnish: Lemon and Grapefruit Twist;
Song: Big Red Machine – June’s a River;
Yes, besides the mix of wine and citrus notes you can really taste the olive bitters shine through. Besides that, the lemonade does work as well as tonic water with the port. The two different citrus peels also add some more complexity to the otherwise pretty straight forward refresher.
