Wine Cocktails DITCHING THE RULES

Wine is stepping out of its comfort zone, and into the cocktail shaker, Gagan Sharma writes about the wine drinking trends of today

- Gagan Sharma

For a long time now, sommeliers have treated wine as sacrosanct, holding it so far above other drinks that mixing it with anything else is considered sacrilege. The mere idea of combining another liquid is enough to raise eyebrows. Yet, it wasn't always this way. Historically, wine has been infused with herbs and spices, blended with spirits (as in fortified wines), and even topped with cola or lemonade simply to stay drinkable. Whether diluted with water, poured over ice, served with tea or fizzed up with soda — none of that mattered.

Recently there's been a revival of drinks like Kalimotxo (red wine and cola), Tinto de Verano (red wine and lemonade), Espanhola (red wine and condensed milk), and even Tom Hanks' Cokagne — a mix of Diet Coke and Champagne. These drinks have helped loosen wine's uptight reputation and opened the door to new ways of enjoying it, a development that has inspired mixologists, and some sommeliers, to showcase wine in creative new avatars. Old habits die hard, however, and recommending something like a Kalimotxo, a drink with over a 100 years of history, can earn you the wrath of the wine purity police or wine traditionalists.