A New Reason To Drink Red Wine All Summer Long

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Poor, poor red wine: Come summer, many of us pack you away with the wool sweaters and ski boots and turn our attention to your white and pink friends. At best, we dump you into a pitcher of sangria.

This year, though, a new book has inspired us to keep you around. Wine Cocktails, by A.J. Rathbun, offers 50 ways to showcase wine in refreshing, uncomplicated mixed drinks.

The book covers all styles–red, white, pink and fortified–but it's this drink that first caught our attention. Made with Cabernet Sauvignon, it comes from the Crusta family of cocktails, their defining characteristic being citrus juice and an elaborate citrus-peel garnish.

And if you've sworn off reds until fall, Rathbun says a full-bodied white makes a fine substitute.

Cabernet Crusta

Recipe adapted from Wine Cocktails (Harvard Common Press)

Makes 2 drinks

3 orange slices (one for rimming, two for garnish)

Sugar

1 orange

Ice

3 ounces Cabernet Sauvignon

1 ounce orange Curaçao

1/2 ounce fresh orange juice

2 ounces simple syrup

4 dashes Angostura bitters

1. Chill two red-wine glasses. Wet the rim of each glass with an orange slice and roll it in sugar to coat only the outside of the rim.

2. Using a sharp paring knife or peeler, carefully peel the rind off the orange in one long spiral strip, avoiding the pith as much as possible. Cut it in half and carefully place a spiral in each wine glass.

3. Fill a cocktail shaker halfway full with ice. Add the Cabernet, Curaçao, orange juice, simple syrup and bitters. Shake vigorously. Add a few ice cubes to each glass. Strain the cocktail into the glasses, garnish with the remaining orange slices and serve.