This Citrus Sangria with red wine is the ultimate drink for entertainment. It’s easy to prepare, you can swap ingredients based on availability. It tastes sweet, fruity and citrusy and it even smells amazing! I make a pitcher of this sangria when I have my girlfriends over for a stress free evening:).
Why make a citrus sangria?
So the classic red wine sangria is just red wine, fruits like oranges & apples and a little bit of liquor of choice. So a citrus sangria is not so far off from a regular sangria.
However, since I live in Florida I am so lucky to be able to find a variety of citrus fruits, often at a discount especially in a smaller markets. I tend to buy a lot when I visit these markets, then scramble to use all the fruits before they go bad:).
If you have extra citrus fruits you are trying to use up, you can make lemonade, preserves, bundt cakes (like this Meyer Lemon bundt Cake and Orange bundt cake), muffins, cocktails and even a sangria like this one:).
How many citrus fruits will you need to make this sangria?
Honestly, the first couple times I made this sangria, I never measured how many fruits I sliced or how many fruits I squeezed to add to the pitcher. I just added by eyeballing. But the 3rd time, I knew my friends were going to ask for the recipe so I decided to write down the ingredients and quantities.
*Note – please keep in mind that sizes of citrus fruits vary widely, so you might want to adjust to taste too. Use this recipe as a guideline:).
- 1 pink grapefruit – half sliced for pitcher and half juice
- 2 blood oranges – 1 sliced and 1 juiced
- 2 navel orange – half an orange sliced and 1.5 orange juiced
- 2 meyer lemons – 1 sliced and 1 juiced
- 1 lime – all sliced, didn’t juice lime
- 1 lemon – half sliced, half juiced
- 2 mandarins – 1 sliced and 1 juiced
You’ll need about 1.5 cups freshly squeezed citrus juice. So depending on how much juice you get from the above guide, feel free to squeeze extra citrus fruits to get to 1.5 cups. Sometimes the amount of juice varies per fruit.
Pro-Tip: Don’t use bottled juice. The sangria won’t taste the same, use freshly squeezed juice!!
How to make this sangria?
Here are the steps I used to make this sangria.
- add sliced citrus fruits to pitcher
- add 1 bottle of wine to pitcher
- add freshly squeezed citrus juice to pitcher
- add a liquor like Grand Marnier, a brandy or even vodka to pitcher
- add a sweetener like sugar, honey, maple syrup or agave (your choice)
- mix everything else and chill for 2 hours
- upon serving add sparkling water or citrus infused sparkling water to glass
- garnish with slices of orange or another citrus
How far ahead can I prepare this sangria?
When I prepare regular sangria, I usually prepare it the night before and refrigerate until needed the next day. However, it can be prepared 2-3 days ahead. It gets stronger, the longer it sits.
When it comes to this citrus sangria, I like to prepare it same day and let it chill in the refrigerator for few hours. The reason I don’t like to prepare it too far ahead is that the pith from citrus skin can make the sangria bitter. Few hours chilling won’t make a difference but after a day or so the flavors from the pith can be detected in taste.
Citrus Sangria with Red Wine
Equipment
- 1 pitcher
- 1 mixing spoon
Ingredients
- 1 bottle red wine
- 1 pink grapefruit
- 2 blood oranges
- 2 navel oranges
- 2 Meyer Lemons
- 1 lemon
- 1 lime
- 2 mandarins
- 0.5 cup brandy
- 0.5 cup sugar
- sparkling water or citrus soda as needed upon serving
Instructions
- Wash all the citrus fruits really well since you will use them with skin on. Pat dry.
- Slice half a grapefruit, half a navel orange, one blood orange, the lime, one meyer lemon, a mandarin and half a lemon. Set the slices aside.
- Squeeze the remaining grapefruit, navel oranges, blood oranges, Meyer lemon, lemon and mandarin. If you have about 1.5 cups of juice you're good to go. If you don't, try to squeeze an additional citrus fruit or two to get to about 1.5 cups of juice. This is a variable because some fruits produce more juice then others.
- Get a pitcher add the slices of citrus fruits. Add a bottle of your favorite red wine into the pitcher. Add the freshly squeezed citrus juice. Add the sugar (or sweetener of your choice), brandy and give a good mix.
- Chill sangria for a minimum of two hours.
- Upon serving I love to garnish with slices of any of the citrus fruits that I still have available. Top off the glass with some club soda or citrus sparkling water. Cheers:)
Video
Notes
- I tend to use whole fruits for this sangria as I don’t like to have few slices leftover. Feel free to adjust some of the quantities based on how many citrus fruits you have available. You can swap certain citrus fruits for others, but then check for sweetness as some are tarter than others.
Nutrition Label
Nutrition
My personal preference is Pinot Noir. I love two brands of Pinot Noir that are less than $20 a bottle. They taste great on this citrus sangria as well as on their own. I have friend who prefer Cabernet Sauvignon in their sangria, so ultimately it comes down to personal taste.
Yes you can!! Use a great white wine during summer time to make a white wine sangria with citrus fruits:). It’s perfect and refreshing for summer time!!
Yes you can! You can replace brandy with an orange liqueur or a lemon liqueur (Grand Marnier, Limoncello etc etc). You can even use spiced rum or citrus infused vodka.
If you’d like to save this recipe for later, please save the below image to your boards in Pinterest. Let me know in comments if you have any questions. Or feel free to tag me with your version of this sangria in social media. Thank you so much for reading my blog!!
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Additional Citrus Recipes
By now you know I love citrus and I tend to add citrus fruits in plenty of my recipes:). Here are some additional recipes for you to check out.
- Meyer Lemon Drop
- Frozen Meyer Lemon Margarita
- Blood Orange & Leeks Salad
- Orange and Quinoa Salad
- Orange Cookies
- Lemon and Blueberry Muffins
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