seriously, it was $3. here was my exact thought process:

hmmm, $3, how bad can it be? it is pink so that doesn’t really bode well, but it is $3. i can always turn it into sangria

and that’s what i did; i turned it into sangria. but first i actually sampled the wine to decipher if it was a good purchase. the taste dry and weak. it was more of an ‘also-ran’ wine rather than a full feature wine. the fruit elements were vague at best with hints of citrus and nothing else. there were no sugar-alcohols to speak of which intensified the dryness. in my opinion the wine itself is a small step above a white zinfandel. there was nothing special about this wine and generally i would say you should take a pass.

on the other hand any cheap wine with the addition of other alcohol(s), fruit, sugar and ice could make for a tasty sangria. however, please heed my advice if you are going to use this wine. first off we started with ‘average-joe’ triple sec. this was a mistake. unfortunately the only taste we got was raw alcohol. i would recommend using grand marnier or cointreau if you are going to spruce up this sangria. ‘but why would i waste my good alcohol on this cheap, cheap wine‘ you ask? because, it’s the orange flavor you are after and you don’t get that from cheap triple sec. the other factor to consider is that you will have to use almost half a liter of triple sec as opposed to, say, half a cup of cointreau.

that aside we dissolved some sugar in water to make a syrup and added that to the mix. i’ll let you decide what amount is right for you. to balance the flavors we added some chopped apple (pink lady variety) and an asian pear too. the final fruit was some lemon slices to add some tartness and bring out the citrus of the wine. *quick tip - squeeze the cut ends of the lemon into the mix for some fresh lemon juice. add ice and stir.

this flavor was much better than as a stand-alone wine. it was much softer, obviously sweeter and smoother. the lemon juice helped balance the sweetness. i wouldn’t make this exact recipe again because the raw alcohol was overpowering, but once the ice cubes melted a bit you could practically chug the sangria. looking back on it i would have added some sprite or 7-up and skipped the sugar altogether. this addition would have brought bubbles and sugar to the party. the bubbles were missed dearly.

final score: 2.5/10 on it’s own, but as a base for sangria 5/10. if it’s on sale for a bargain-basement price, pick up a bottle and see for yourself. be smart; have a contingency plan in case you don’t like it straight up.