Sparkling Wine Cocktails for Every Occasion
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Discover 13 sparkling wine cocktails that are ideal for celebrating any occasion. These bubbly cocktails are all easy to craft, and they all taste great.
Sparkling cocktails have become a sunset phenomenon all over Europe in recent years. Go to any place, praça, piazza, platz or square around 6 in the evening and you’ll observe mobs of people gathered under umbrellas with bright orange Aperol Spritzes gripped in their hands. In the distant future, people may look at old photos in befuddlement wondering: “What’s with all the orange drinks?”
But the sparkling cocktail rage has grown beyond the Aperol Spritz. Today, it’s possible to order a range of spectacular sparkling libations in various colors and flavors.
And why not? Bubbles in a glass tease the eyes before they tickle the tongue. Even that happy fizzing sound pleases the senses.
Why Do Sparkling Wine Cocktails Sparkle?
Not all that sparkles in cocktails is champagne.
Sure, champagne is the most famous sparkling wine. But make no mistake, other sparkling wines work equally well in bubbly cocktails despite their differences in geography and terroir.
In fact, when it comes to crafting sparkling wine cocktails, we’d argue that champagne isn’t necessarily the best sparkling wine to use, and we’d probably win the argument. For starters, the idea of using champagne in Italian spritzes is as frivolous as it is incorrect. But this isn’t just the case with Italian cocktails.
Think about it. Champagne is typically expensive. If you’re going to mix bubbly wine with juice and ingredients like Campari and Cointreau, using one of the following less expensive sparkling wines simply makes more sense:
Plus, when you use a different sparkling wine, you can save your bottle of champagne for a special occasion that warrants a splurge. Think about ringing in the new year with a champagne cocktail, and you get the drift. You’ll achieve effervescence either way.
Sparkling Cocktails Around the World
Spritzes have soared in popularity; none more so than the aforementioned Aperol Spritz. It’s practically impossible to find a bar in Europe that doesn’t serve the bitter orange spritz. The drink is growing in popularity in the USA, too. Even TikTok has joined the spritz movement, popularizing the Negroni Sbagliato decades after the ‘Negroni with Prosecco’ was invented.
Ironically, while Italians get credit for inventing many of the most popular spritzes, the spritz concept became popular in Austria (the word spritz derives from the German word spritzen), where you can still drink great spritzes in cities like Vienna and Graz. Then there are the French, who get credit for creating sparkling cocktails, including the ever-popular French 75 as well as the Kir Royale.
13 of the Best Sparkling Wine Cocktails
1. Aperol Spritz
2. French 75
3. Limoncello Spritz
4. Negroni Sbagliato
5. Mimosa
6. Bellini
7. Hugo Spritz
8. Kir Royale
9. Agua de Valencia
10. Portuguese Spritz
11. Campari Spritz
12. Select Spritz
13. Cynar Spritz
💡 Frequently Asked Questions
Love it or hate it, the Aperol Spritz is currently the most popular sparkling cocktail.
Aperol, Prosecco, Sparkling Water, Ice Cubes and Orange (for garnish)
No! You can use other sparkling wines like Cava and Prosecco to craft sparkling wine cocktails.
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