Champagne has always been a choice luxurious drink for celebrations. Today, however, it is often served with a twist. People are no longer excited about plain beer or a glass of red or white at every occasion, and the essence of a wedding, dinner party or formal gathering increasingly lies in the cocktails on offer. The strawberry champagne on ice craze caught on quickly, especially after it featured in a Bruno Mars song, and is now widely known as Bruno Mars strawberry champagne. The beauty of the drink is that it is easy to prepare and delivers a delight similar to the traditional Rossini cocktail.
History of Strawberry Champagne
Most champagne cocktails served today borrow from old punch recipes. The Royal Punch was the most popular in the 19th century, when the Champagne houses of the time produced white, red and pink wines. In Germany it was made with white wine, lemons, champagne, tea and arrack. Regions like Munich prepared it using oranges, arrack, lemons and champagne with a pint of pineapple juice. At the time, the wines were described as delicate with an edge on the palate. Modern champagne is slightly different, firmer and fizzier with a pleasant prickle. The author Samuel Butler once described champagne as
brisk with a gentle prick on the palate.
Trading links between Germany and France brought champagne into cocktails and punches during the second half of the 18th century. The Baron Zulow punch was the first on record in 1766, a large bowl of champagne and arrack. Two years later, von Munchhausen introduced a cocktail of Rhine wine or champagne, lemons and Seville oranges with arrack, a recipe later recorded in a Berlin cookbook in 1796.
The preparation evolved over the years to match each region’s tastes. In the 19th century, Russians preferred sweet punches and used sweet champagne (with 250 to 330g of sugar), while Germans favoured less sweet versions with 170 to 200g. The 1860s saw the first frozen versions, on the logic that an over-sweet wine is best served over ice. That style stuck, which is why so many of these cocktails, strawberry champagne on ice included, are served frozen today.
Strawberry champagne borrows heavily from the Rossini, a mixed drink of pureed strawberries and Prosecco named after the 19th-century Italian composer Gioachino Rossini.
How to Prepare
The Rossini uses much the same technique as a Bellini, with a slight variation. Cut the strawberries, blend them into a puree, pour it into Champagne flutes and top up with Prosecco. A slice of strawberry goes on the rim, just as it does today. Modern strawberry champagne follows the same method.
Ingredients
- A bottle of sparkling wine or champagne
- A cup of fresh or frozen strawberries
- A cup of lime juice
Instructions
- Wash and dry the strawberries (defrost first if frozen), then blend into a smooth puree and stir in the lime juice.
- Pour the strawberry pulp into tall glasses.
- Add champagne over the puree and stir gently. Finish with a slice of strawberry on the rim, and add a little sugar or vanilla to taste if you like.
How to Serve
Use decent glassware. Pouring the cocktail into a wide bowl makes it lose its bubbles fast and throws away much of the aroma. Serve it in a flute instead, which carries the drink to the tongue so you get the full flavour and scent.
Choosing the Right Wine
The wine you use decides how the cocktail turns out. If you reach for a sparkling wine rather than champagne, choose one made by the traditional method, where the wine is aged on its lees. That ageing builds a rounder body, finer bubbles and a sweeter fragrance, all of which carry through into the finished drink. A few pointers for picking the right bottle follow.
Vintage and Non-Vintage
Vintage wines and champagnes are matured for at least three years and tend to cost more. As vintages are not declared every year, look for the labels LD or RD, which mean the wine spent a long time on the lees and gained extra depth. That said, do not write off non-vintage entirely. A good non-vintage, blended across several years, gives you consistency and plenty of flavour for a cocktail.
Sweet and Dry
Check the label for sweetness. Most bottles are marked extra sec (extra dry), brut (dry), demi-sec (medium) or doux (sweet).
Cooling the Champagne
The best way to chill a bottle is in an ice bucket of water and ice, which gets it to temperature in 15 to 20 minutes. Failing that, stand it on the bottom shelf of the fridge for 3 to 4 hours. Avoid the freezer, which strips out the flavour and aroma. For the bottles we rate most highly, see our guide to the best champagne.
Storage
Sparkling wine and non-vintage champagne are not built for long storage, since the producer has already aged them. With a vintage champagne, keep the bottle somewhere cool and dark with little temperature swing, and if it lives in the fridge, seal it with a proper stopper.
The Best Buys
Australian sparkling wines from the House of Arras make excellent cocktails. Stefano Lubiana, Heemskerk and Chandon are all worth a look too, and for an imported option the Italian wines of Franciacorta punch well above their weight.
