Drink Like a Spaniard: “Take It Tranquilo”

A refreshing and easy-to-make wine cocktail

Jonathan Lind is a NYC-based bartender, founding Bar Director at Crown Shy, and has worked at celebrated establishments like Eleven Madison Park.

March 28, 2023 8:58 pm

Spain’s Tinto de Verano, or “Summer Red,” is one of those beautifully simple yet endlessly customizable drinks that should be a staple of every summer gathering. It is, at its most basic level, a combination of red wine and soda. Not soda like club soda, but soda like Sprite.

I sense your skepticism, but please, stick with me. To some, this drink will sound like Spain’s best known drink, sangria. But where sangria is red wine dialed up to 11, Tinto de Verano is red wine dialed down far enough to host its own smooth jazz late-night AM radio program. It’s chill. It’s light. It’s easy. And it’s starting to become so popular beyond Iberia that there are companies working on canned, ready-to-drink versions of this bubbly delight. The recipe is deliriously simple…are you ready?

Tinto de Verano

Servings: 1 Drink

Copy Ingredients

Ingredients

4 oz. red wine (full-bodied and fruit-forward like a mourvedre, cabernet or grenache)
4 oz. soda (something fresh and citrus-forward like Sprite, Fresca, Squirt, Ting, etc.)

Directions

Copy Directions

1. Pour the red wine into a glass full of ice.
2. Stir one or twice. (Remember what we learned above about cold stuff being more bubbly?)
3. Add soda.
4. Garnish with an orange or a lemon. Or don’t. A Tinto de Verano is unfussy. Enjoy!

NON-SPIRITED VERSION

Allow me to recommend Prickly Red by Studio Null — which can be found at Boisson, an absolute treasure trove of non-alcoholic wines and spirits — to achieve a gorgeous de-alcoholized Tinto de Verano. Use the same 1:1 ratio as in the recipe above.