The path of high-summer cocktail hour matches the ease and pace of its season: Open the refrigerator, take out a bottle, relish the cold condensation in your hand, pour, mix, drink.
Nothing embodies that spirit quite like wine cocktails, which take little more effort than remembering where you last set down the corkscrew.
Start with a kir. Served chilled and made from only two ingredients — crisp, dry white wine and crème de cassis, a black currant liqueur — a kir mixes itself directly in the glass. Its low-alcohol content is an open invitation to go the length of the sunset and drink two.
A classic wine cocktail from the Burgundy region of France, the kir gets its name from Félix Kir, a priest, World War II resistance fighter and mayor of Dijon. Legends about its origin abound. Some cry marketing ploy, theorizing that the drink was meant to give aligoté, the region’s far less famous white, a fighting chance against its chardonnay and red Burgundy. Others maintain its rise was an act of resistance: a red-hued drink in defiance of Nazi confiscation of highly prized red Burgundy during the war. Still others say the mayor simply liked the local cocktail, often serving it to visitors, some of whom brought it home to make and drink.
When the proportions are right, a kir is refreshingly tart and lightly sweet. When the black currant liqueur is poured with too heavy a hand, the drink veers sickly sweet, reminiscent of another seasonally apropos yet little loved wine cocktail, this one with 1980s American origins: the wine cooler.
The cooler’s combination of still wine and sweetened fruit juice (and sometimes soda water) was originally targeted at carefree Southern California beachgoers and health-conscious baby boomers, with an emphasis on women. In its decline, the cloyingly sweet drink became a choice buzz for underage drinkers.
Today, the oft-maligned cocktail has been making a comeback through cans like those from the sommelier Jordan Salcito’s brand Ramona. But a fresh cooler can be easily made using a bottle of your favorite white, red or rosé — mom jeans optional.
CreditLinda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne.
Whether you’re making a kir or a cooler (or sangria or kalimotxo or tinto de verano, or any other wine-based cocktail), note the main ingredient: wine. Too often, wine cocktails are cover-ups for flawed or nearly turned bottles. This leads to lackluster drinks and quick-to-arrive hangovers.
“Start with a wine you want to drink on its own,” said Erin Sylvester, one of the owners of Sylvester/Rovine Selections, a California-based wine distributor. “I want to drink wines that are farmed organically and fermented with natural yeast, so I’m going to follow these inclinations.”
Ms. Sylvester offered a few suggestions for choosing a bottle for a wine cocktail: “For whites, I would gravitate toward a bright and clean citrus-driven option, such as aligoté, chasselas or altesse,” she said. “One that has a saline note, such as a muscadet, could also be a lot of fun.”
“For rosés and reds, go with a dry but fresh and juicy option that is light-bodied with little to no tannin.”
Reach for anything that you would happily drink straight from the bottle. And if you expand your definition of wine beyond still bottles, you have sparkling, aromatized or fortified wines to play with.
But in the height of summer, simplify. Drop the last few ounces of that well-loved, well-chilled bottle so often found in your fridge into a kir or cooler. Or uncork something fresh and start the evening with a wine cocktail before pouring straight glasses. Who knows, you might be moved to linger a few drinks longer.
Recipes: Kir | Rosé Cooler
