In defense of bloodletting
A hasty list of things we do in summer Y only in summer because it seems that the rest of the year, they singe: read the Hello, socks with flip flops (guilty!) Y drink sangria . Which gives me the feeling that drink sangria, sweet sin of youth , is one of those customs associated with the initiation to alcohol and that we abandon when we believe that choosing is burdening ourselves with prejudices; what a gross mistake. How foolish we become sometimes when we think we mature.
This strange summer, however, there have been not one or two times when the image on the table was, to say the least, surprising: always in "good" restaurants and always a pitcher of sangria on the table in front of two —me what do I know—happy Dutch. One of those times was in the beautiful Sea Club of the Hotel Cap Rocat, in Majorca ; a short circuit in my mental ecosystem of a wine lover above all things, Why do you ask for that when you can choose a Burgundy?
But let's see, what problem do we have here with the sangria? To begin with, it should be remembered that this wine lemonade It is both Spanish and Portuguese heritage and it is so under a legal framework, and that is that "the denomination sangria can only be used when the drink has been made in Spain or Portugal ” —sangria is as much ours as Iberian ham or paella, but we say it with a small mouth. It is strange to say the least, because after all it is a combination with wine and fruit, perfect for a day of sun and wet skin, I think it is in Provence where they say that “ A day without wine is a day without sun ” and for better or for worse it is difficult for me to draw our culture without that cold pitcher with fruit, ice and the color of blood and love.
Born in Spain? Well, there are doubts: on the one hand we have the most common hypothesis that places its origin in bull skin at the beginning of the 19th century , another conjecture places his birth under the influence of Spanish immigration in Argentina or Paraguay and my favorite genealogy (provided by David Rabasa, sommelier at Ricard Camarena) as picturesque, and depending on who it was Director of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language, Mr. Lázaro Carreter, the term sangria is not documented in Spain until 1803 while already at the end of the 17th century the English designate with the word ' sangaree ' a refreshing drink that is the result of mixture of wine, sugar and other condiments . Mr. Carreter also tells us that “it was only at the very end of the 1700s that the English 'sangaree' or the Gallic 'sang-gris' began to be produced here and to be called 'sangria' due to phonetic and chromatic proximity, now on the way back ”.
"However, we already had a similar drink for some centuries, which is, the Zurracapote or Zurra ”, Rabasa opens the melon of how it would be possible to recover our best version of sangria: “knowing the boom that cocktails are having in these times, it could be done a good blend of young wine (maybe reduce it) and not the remains of bottles that are empty in the cellar, with good seasonal fruits and not look in the camera for fruits that are asking for the time —and throw them out without any criteria , which is what is usually done. Like adding sugar nonsense like it's the sugar cane party instead of make a good syrup (TPT) with the same amount of sugar as water, or a few touches of curacao and gin to give it a lot more travel”.
I agree on one very important point. Why can't sangria be an excuse to make millennials fall in love? Surrendered as it is to the siren songs of beer, it can (should) be a lighter approach, also linked to the seasonality of the heat in summer and the shade of the beach bar. That's not counting the tourist, for whom the rojillo combination is pure pleasure without nonsense associated with our more enjoyable castizo self”.
“When I lived and worked in San Francisco I saw a huge demand and how many people preferred it to a glass of wine (the price of a glass of wine there is exorbitant and this also has an influence). So we started thinking about making a sangria that we would drink ourselves, made with organic wine, lemon juice, Valencian oranges and most importantly: without adding sugar, just the sugar from the fruits, which is already fine”, who Talk is Teresa Pastor from Vinos de Terruños , whose market basically lives in the United States and Canada. A very stale part of me can't help but find it strange that a winery makes sangria, as if it were a downgrade.
And at home, do we drink it? From the Interprofessional of the Wine of Spain (OIVE) They tell me that “as for the data on household consumption of sangria , the truth is that there is a bit of a mess; As it is not a pure product, neither production nor consumption is statistically collected, so what there is is highly estimated or the result of surveys. It is usually included in 'wine cocktails' or in 'other wine-based drinks' in household consumption surveys”, in terms of hospitality, it is undoubtedly a missed opportunity? for so many bars that little by little are integrating it as a more careful product (with seasonal fruit, for God's sake) so why not imagine a not so distant future with a lovingly crafted sangria paired with a Negroni or a Brandy Sour, cheers!
Why not a sangria but a wine cocktail yes?