A Grapefruit Rosé Kiss is a great cocktail for National Drink Wine Day, which just happens to fall on February 18th this year. The point of National Drink Wine Day is to spread the love and health benefits of drinking wine (at least, this is what the official website says). I don’t really need an official day to drink wine, but I will take this opportunity to share one of my favorite wine based cocktails with you.
A grapefruit rosé kiss combines some of my favorite things: a good dry rosé wine, grapefruit juice, and grapefruit bitters. This also gets just a little love from rosemary grapefruit bitter sugar cubes.
I first drank rosé at Piccolo’s in Denver. Piccolo’s was (is) an odd little fusion Italian/Mexican restaurant near the University of Denver. I had absolutely no clue what kind of wine to order, so randomly chose Beringer’s White Zinfandel. I don’t recall if it was a recommendation by the waitress or a shot in the dark on my part, but I liked it. It was sweet and it was wine and it made me feel very grown up. It became my wine for a number of years. I didn’t branch out much until my first trip to Portland, Oregon, where I encountered a sweet Riesling for the first time.
My wine tastes have definitely changed throughout the years. I now much prefer a robust red and don’t drink much sweet wine. I love Sauvignon Blanc, particularly in the summer time. I’ve been wine tasting in Oregon and Washington a dozen times and definitely like a range of wines. It’s been ages since I’ve had Beringer’s White Zinfandel. Still, I have the occasional nostalgic hankering for a rosé. I tend to go for those that are fairly dry. I really like La Ferme Julien from Trader Joe’s, which is what I used in this cocktail. And yes, I did sweeten it up a bit. Not sorry about that at all.
I’ll definitely be enjoying one of these grapefruit rosé kiss cocktails for National Wine Day tomorrow.
Ingredients
- 2 cups superfine sugar (superfine sugar and caster sugar are one and the same).
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
- 2 tablespoon grapefruit bitters
- 1 grapefruit bitter rosemary sugar cube
- 2 drops grapefruit bitters
- Juice from half a grapefruit
- Rosé wine, chilled
Instructions
- Combine the sugar, rosemary and grapefruit bitters. Spread in a plastic container or plastic molds. If you are using a plastic container, score the sugar cubes into the desired size as this will make them easier to separate once dry. Leave uncovered, overnight. Once the cubes are dry, break them into cube sized pieces and store at room temperature in a covered container.
- Put a sugar cube in the bottom of a wine glass. Add the grapefruit juice and the bitters. Top with chilled rosé wine. Enjoy!
- Makes one cocktail, but can easily be doubled (or tripled, or quadrupled).
