Champagne Party Cocktails
The following champagne cocktail recipes—or sparkling wine recipes; we’re not sticklers to the rules—will help you celebrate the victories big and small. Starting a new year is certainly a win, but so is meeting up with your mom for brunch or making bubbly cocktails for a game night with friends. There’s no occasion too small for a champagne-and-something. When in doubt, use a dry brut champagne. And point the cork away from your loved ones’ faces.
Apple Cider Mimosas
For when you want to day drink and wear a brushed flannel button-down at the same time.
Ingredients
• 4 oz. brut champagne
• 2 oz. all-natural apple cider
• 1 oz. cinnamon whiskey
• 1 slice of apple, for garnish
Directions
Mix cider and cinnamon whiskey in a champagne flute. Top with champagne, then stir lightly until incorporated. Garnish with an apple slice.
Mimosa
Boozy, bottomless, brunch. That’s the Mimosa. Grand Marnier adds a backbone to this otherwise-basic morning cocktail.
Ingredients
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 4 oz. brut champagne
• 1 tsp. Grand Marnier (optional)
Directions
Fill champagne flute 1/3 full of fresh-squeezed orange juice. Top up with brut champagne, then add Grand Marnier.
Blushing Mimosa
A tropical take on the Mimosa, with pineapple and grenadine, cracks through a winter chill.
Ingredients
• 2 oz. orange juice
• 1 oz. pineapple juice
• 2 tbs. grenadine
• brut champagne
Directions
Fill a champagne flute 2/3 full of the juice mixture. Top with champagne, then add grenadine.
Atomic Cocktail
This is a cocktail built to withstand an atom-splitting bomb. Handle with immense care.
Ingredients
• 1 1/2 oz. vodka
• 1 1/2 oz. brandy
• 1 tsp. sherry
• 1 1/2 oz. brut champagne
Directions
Stir the vodka, brandy, and sherry well with cracked ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add brut champagne.
Grand Royal
That Grand Marnier you dashed into your Mimosa? Use it again at night to dress up champagne—especially if that champagne isn’t exactly top-shelf stuff.
Ingredients
• 3/4 parts Grand Marnier
• 4 parts champagne
Directions
Add Grand Marnier to a champagne flute, then top with champagne. Garnish with an orange twirl.
Barbotage
Run that Grand Royal out a mile further with a splash of cognac.
Ingredients
• 1/2 oz. cognac
• 1 tsp. Grand Marnier
• 4 oz. brut champagne
Directions
Pour cognac (or another brandy) and Grand Marnier into a champagne flute. Top up with brut champagne.
Black Velvet
Think of a Black Velvet like a Coke float for the of-drinking-age crowd. Some foam, some fizz.
Ingredients
• Guinness stout
• brut champagne
Directions
Half-fill a Collins glass with stout and top up slowly with champagne. Stir gently with glass or plastic rod.
Your favorite champagnes and mixers are here at the Wine and Spirits Cellar. Come see us!