Port Sangria!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Saturday's Tasting Party. It was such a great success. Special Thanks to Sheila and Mike for assisting with cooking and to Sheila and Josh for bringing dishes to share! It was so great to bring everyone together over food and wine and great conversation. And from it, we received so many incredible suggestions and reviews, I am overwhelmed with appreciation and excitement for where this project is going.

One of the excellent results of Saturday was our Sangria Recipe, which I am so happy to share with you all. This recipe was pretty easy for me to formulate. It came from a Sangria recipe that I already had which included Red Zinfandel, Brandy and sugar. I simply switched out those three for the port, which is a sweet Red Zin that is fortified with Brandy. What I love about substituting the port for those three ingredients is that it evened out the Sangria and really cut a little bit of the sweetness from its predecessor. Hope you enjoy it!

Sangria

Yield: Makes about 30 servings

Ingredients

(6) 500 ml bottles of Meyer Family Tawny Port

1/2 cup Cointreau

1 quart orange juice

1 cup lemon juice

2 oranges, thinly sliced and halved

1 lemon, thinly sliced

2 fuji apples, cored and chopped (or 1 apple and 1 pear, cored and chopped)

1 quart chilled club soda

Preparation

Pour the half of the port, Cointreau, orange juice, and lemon juice into a large punch bowl. Add fresh cut fruit to the bowl. Add the remaining port and club soda to the bowl. Place bowl in refrigerator and chill for 3 to 24 hours.