Wine Wisdom: Summer dilutions

Spritz season in the UK means something different compared to mainland Europe. Here, it means that we should be adding liqueurs to our sparkling wine, upping the booze level while the sun still shines. Over there, it’s an opportunity to be refreshed. I have time for both, but in the close, humid warmth of a wet Lancashire summer, I’ve been turning to a more European way of whetting my whistle.

Germans know a thing or two about fizzy water, and I respect them hugely for it. You can buy it in different strengths, meaning you can choose between the aggressive fizz of a mineral water volcano, or the soft foam of a barely-there bubble. In Germany, adding water to your wine is an extremely normal thing to do, and I use this oxymoron purposefully. There is nothing more German than being normal in the extreme. At lunch in a winemaking region, say Mosel or Rheinhessen, you’ll top up a splash of wine with water and have a lovely refreshing drink that you’re told is good for you—it’s not, but it’s always nice to believe.

In Hungary they also love a spritz, however there it’s known as a fröcc. They love it so much that there are around 20 different officially-named fröcc, all with the same ingredients but with different ratios of wine to sparkling water. To love a simple drink this much, and to enjoy it at literally any occasion, that is something to aspire to. In Croatia they also love a wine and water refresher: Gemišt is a zingy white wine mixed with sparkling water, and a Bevanda is red wine and still water, usually drunk along the Dalmatian coast. The fun thing about Croatian spritzes is that the water can often be the most precious part of the drink—mineral water is one of Croatia’s finest exports, and a gemišt is often made to soften the flavour of a cheaper wine.