SANGRIA, ALL IS FORGIVEN.

We absolve you of your sweet, fruity sins, and see you rise again, as an elegant punch.

This is not your tourist-style sangria built with cheap red wine, diluted with lemonade and looking like Carmen Miranda’s tutti-frutti costume hat.

This is elegant.

A good sangria is not a fruit salad, but more of a wine-based punch. It’s very much part of the culture of Spain and Portugal, although the concept of mixing wine, fruit and spices can be traced back to the ancient Romans and Greeks.

Mine calls for a decent red wine, uses only oranges and lemons, a dash of Cointreau for orange-scented sweetness (which saves you having to make sugar syrup or try to dissolve sugar), and sparkling water for a touch of fizz if you want. Hola, you’re in Spain or Portugal already.

The Porteno team do a great Sangria at Bar Louise in Sydney, so I’ve pinched their idea of using apple juice to lighten and mellow out the red wine a little, and it really works. Skip the top-up if you’re not feeling very spritzy.

RED WINE SANGRIA

• 600 ml light red wine

• 100 ml Cointreau or Triple Sec

• 200 ml apple juice

• 100 ml orange juice

• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in two

• Half lemon, finely sliced cross-wise

• Half small orange, finely sliced cross-wise

• Sparkling mineral, soda water or apple cider if desired

Combine the red wine, Cointreau, apple juice, orange juice, cinnamon stick and sliced orange and lemon in a jug, reserving 4 thin slices of each to garnish the 4 glasses.

Refrigerate for an hour or two.

Add a heap of ice cubes, stir, and pour into sturdy glasses.

Put extra ice into each glass, with the reserved orange and lemon slices.

Fill the glasses almost full, then add a dash of sparkling water.

Serving suggestion: Go on to last week’s garlicky prawns, crusty bread, aioli.

I tried making a fruit bowl Sangria with berries and peaches, sugar syrups and the like, and just went nah. Oranges and lemons for the win. And the wine.

For those who prefer white wine, I suspect a white Sangria is even more elegant, especially if the wine has some peachy almond notes going for it. I’ve replicated the recipe above for white, and it’s totally charming on a hot day or into the evening. You could skip the orange juice, but don’t skip the apple juice, it does something mystical. And consider topping with chilled Prosecco or Cava.

WHITE WINE SANGRIA

• 600 ml white wine

• 100 ml Cointreau or Triple Sec

• 200 ml apple juice

• 100 ml orange juice

• 1 cinnamon stick, broken in two

• Half lemon, finely sliced cross-wise

• Half small orange, finely sliced cross-wise

• Sparkling mineral or soda water for topping up if desired

Combine the wine, Cointreau, apple juice, orange juice, cinnamon stick and sliced orange and lemon in a jug, reserving 4 thin slices of each to garnish the 4 glasses.

Refrigerate for an hour or two.

Add a heap of ice cubes, stir, and pour into sturdy glasses.

Put extra ice in each glass, with the orange and lemon slices.

Fill the glasses almost full, then add a dash of sparkling water.

Thanks for dropping by! And thanks for your comments and suggestions. Special thanks to Terry for sharing his Bernal Spanish banderillas (cocktail skewers, above) with us - so cute.

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I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. Thank you for sharing your culture, traditions, knowledge, spirit, art, music, humour and food traditions, allowing us all to experience a greater sense of belonging in this ancient land.