Back in December, my mother came home from the liquor store with a bottle of cranberry sweet wine in her hand. I’m sure I raised an eyebrow or made some biting quip about it before I tucked it away in our basement to never be looked at again. Eventually, running low on wine and wanting to have a drink of something easy, I opened this baby up. I took a sip of it, and it was basically cranberry juice, only sweeter. So, instead of drinking it like a wine, I decided to use it as a base for some cocktail experimentation, and I came up with this. It’s definitely a drink that’s sugary, meant for summer, and best appreciated in a mason jar. It could easily be transformed into one big punch for a big gathering, too. Either way, this is the lazy man’s cocktail that’s great for when you’re craving simplicity.
Cran-Apple Chill
Yield: 1 cocktail
3 oz. cranberry wine (preferably from St. James Winery)
1 1/2 oz. Calvados
1 oz. homemade sweet and sour (recipe here)
1 1/2 oz. tonic water
1. Fill your glass up with ice. Measure out ingredients and layer them into the glass. Stir gently with a straw or swizzle stick. Enjoy.
A Famished Foodie 
Well done. Bad wine; good cocktail.
Haha, thank you! I try to use bad wine in better ways.
It’s an important skill!
Wonderful example of how to win when life gives you lemons (or in this case, cranberries!) Having said that, I hereby nominate the phrase “best appreciated in a mason jar” for induction into the annals of beverage review standard terminology… (smiles)
Haha! Don’t tell me you don’t know what that means! Every easy, lazy drink should be served in a mason jar- it transforms it into something classy for 2015