The New Year is right around the corner and trust me, you don’t want to ring in 2017 with the boring champagne toast. In partnership with Michelle Sparkling Wine, I’ve collaborated with my favorite Austin bartenders (JR Mocanu, beverage director of VOX Table, and Justin Elliott, partner of The Townsend) to share 3 sparkling wine cocktail recipes.
The Michelle Brut Rosé tastes delicious by itself, with impressions of berries in the nose and on the palate with a fruity aftertaste. The Michelle Brut has delicate flavors of apples and citrus and lively acidity, whereas the Michelle Extra Dry is slightly sweeter with flavors of apples and pears, made from premium grapes sourced from Washington State’s Columbia Valley. Perfect by the glass and mixed in with sparkling wine cocktails like the recipes below. Enjoy!
The Liz Lemon’s Mistake cocktail is inspired by Liz Lemon from 30 Rock by JR Mocanu.
The cocktail represents the character Liz lemon. Bubbly , bright, and fun. It’s easier for someone to relate to a cocktail through a name over some of the more obscure cocktail ingredients that some might not recognize like calamansi for instance (think of a brighter and more floral version of a mandarin orange) that is used mostly in east Asia. I use it as a vinegar to stabilize and brighten the syrup, which gives the drink a unique pop quality. I also tend to use the dry champagnes with a crisp apple barnyard note… A little funkiness to make it unique from other sparkling cocktails.
LIZ LEMON’S MISTAKE
Serves 1
Ingredients
1.5 oz Reyka vodka
.75 oz fresh lemon juice
.5 oz pomegranate-apple cider syrup
.25 oz Meyer lemon honey
Michelle Brut
2 dashes Bittercube bolivar bitters
Instructions
Build in cocktail shaker and shake with ice.
Strain into champagne glass.
Top off with sparkling wine.
Garnish with a lemon peel.
Justin Elliott likes to build his cocktails around classical methodology. He’s crafted the Americano Spritz and Townsend Cup Royale.
A spritz can kind of be thought of as a (typically sparkling) wine lightened up and bitter-sweetened. This one uses grapefruit juice and Americano, a muscat-based, gentian & quinine bittered fortified & aromatized wine. Then, the “cup” “royale” follows suit. We use the Michelle Sparkling Wine to lengthen and carbonate what might be considered a traditional English style “cup”. You’re certainly familiar with Pimm’s and the Pimm’s Cup; well, similar deal. A low-ish proof highball made from a cordial base of sweet and fortified wine, gin, and aromatics which is then lengthened with something bubbly.
AMERICANO SPRITZ
Serves 1
Ingredients
1.5 oz Cocchi Americano (any americano bianco will do)
1 oz grapefruit juice
3 oz Michelle Brut
Instructions
Build in AP Wine glass, add cubed ice, and stir.
Garnish with grapefruit peel.
TOWNSEND CUP ROYALE
Serves 1
Ingredients
1 oz White Porto
1 oz dry gin
.5 oz lime juice
.25 oz Yellow Chartreuse
3 oz Michelle Extra Dry Sparkling Wine
Instructions
Build in collins glass and add cracked ice.
Stir and garnish with mint sprig.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Michelle. The opinions and text are all mine.
