For parties or any type of seasonal entertaining, I like a cocktail that gets poured together in a jug rather than mixed up by the glass. And this is the perfect drink for Christmas: the fizzy white wine (any dry white will do) adds sparkle, while the cherry brandy brings a tongue-in-cheek touch of great-aunt’s tipple and the ginger ale provides the perfect seasonal spiciness. Obviously, you can fiddle with the proportions if you want to make the wine stretch more, but this is my starting point. And I can get all the component parts from my local supermarket.

Serves

Makes enough to fill approximately 10 glasses

Ingredients

1 x 75cl bottle of cava or other relatively inexpensive dry white fizzy wine
125ml cherry brandy
500ml dry ginger ale

Method

Step 1: Chill the fizzy wine and ginger ale and pop a glass jug big enough to hold all the ingredients to chill in the fridge, too, if you like.

Step 2: Pour the bottle of wine into your jug, add the cherry brandy and then the ginger ale and give a gentle stir to mix (but do not remove any fizz).

Step 3: Pour into glasses of your choice. If you want to add ice to glasses as you hand out, do.

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Christmas cup