Simple Peach Sangria (Serves 4)

I love late Spring and early Summer. It signifies freshness, newness and warmth to me that I long for every other day of the year. I look forward to fresh fruits and veggies that aren't pure starch and working in my garden to harvest fruits and veggies ready to head into my food dishes.

One of my favorite summertime drinks is Sangria. I love to have Sangria while sitting on the back porch and processing the day with my husband or simply chilling with friends. Wikipedia defines Sangria as "a wine punch typical of Argentina, Spain and Portugal. It normally consists of wine, chopped fruit, a sweetener, and a small amount of added brandy. In the case of fruits, they are chopped or sliced such as orange, lemon, lime, apple, peach, melon, berries, pineapple, grape and mango. A sweetener such as honey, sugar, simple syrup, orange juice is added. Instead of brandy, other liquids such as Seltzer, Sprite or 7 Up may be added." A Sangria can be either really simple, like the recipe I am going to show here, or it can be really involved, like I will be blogging about as summer comes closer.

Common Sangria, and are often determined by the chosen wine bases fruits include grapes (halved); strawberries; peaches; nectarines; lemon; limes; oranges; grapefruit; pears and apples. I have definitely gone outside this, though, to include raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.

Now, I must admit that I like my wines/sangria drier, so I am adding a simple syrup as an optional ingredient. I actually prefer mine without any added sweeteners and depend on the wine, the juice and the fruit to do the sweetening for me.

So, here we go!:

Ingredients:

1 bottle Riesling Wine~ I recommend going cheaper with the wine, as fruits and such are added to it
1 can (11oz) Peach Nectar
4 cups chopped fruit~for this Sangria, I chose grapefruit, strawberries and peaches.
1/4-1/2 cup simple syrup, optional

Directions:

1) Combine all ingredients in a pitcher and let chill for 4-6 hours.
2) Pour into wine glasses with ice. Make sure each drink has a healthy serving of fruit!