A drink that is now so iconic and enjoyed all around the world, the white wine spritzer is a light and fizzy journey into the wine universe. This drink is easy to make and is wonderfully refreshing on those hot summer days. The white wine spritzer is perfect for anyone who enjoys the flavour of wine but not alcohol, as it contains almost no alcohol compared to traditional wine cocktails.
By definition though, a cocktail must have a base of a spirit or alcohol, sugar and a bitter. Though this definition has definitely been stretched in the modern context, it still holds true for the White Wine Spritzer. A cocktail can contain any amount of liquids, fruits, infusions, dilutions, and flavourings in addition to its base ingredients. In the modern bar, wine and alcohol are indispensable ingredients behind the sharp taste of spirits.
The White Wine Spritzer is thought to have originated in Hungary in the mid-1800s. This combination of wine – usually white or rose – along with fizzy soda water was served chilled and was drunk as a light refresher. The Sage Encyclopedia of Alcohol: Social, Cultural, and Historical Perspectives also suggests that spritzers are of German origin but wherever they came from, they definitely spread like wildfire. Different types of spritzers began to spring up in different countries and some of them are the direct ancestors of ready-to-drink wine coolers that are still so popular today.
In Spain, they made the Tinto De Verano, where they mixed red wine with soda water or sometimes they even used lime or lemon soft drinks instead of water. The name itself translates to “red wine of summer’ and became a popular chilled refresher. In Germany, the Süssgespritzter was a mix of wine and fizzy lemonade and in Hungary, they took things one step further with a specific range of cocktails depending on the proportions of the ingredients. The Fröccs is the general name for wine spritzers while a Újházy fröcss ('Ujhazy spritzer') is made from 20 ml of wine plus a type of pickle juice and the Macifröccs or 'teddy bear spritzer is a combination of red wine, soda, and raspberry syrup.
So next time someone tries to tell you that there’s a specific or right way to drink wine, you can tell them that even the controversial white wine spritzer has a history that dates back over two centuries and has every right to be counted among the world’s classic cocktails.