The Noble Experiment

Champagne cocktails in the summertime can’t be beat.  They’re crisp, refreshing and perfect for those lazy afternoons on the patio.

But if you’re the kind of person who has ever found a class of sparkling wine a little bit boring, I’m hoping that these cocktails will change your perspective.  With the addition of a few additional ingredients sparkling wine can be transformed into something enirely different.  Check out the recipes below, make some cocktails and let me know what you think!

French 75

The French 75 is one of my favorite cocktails of all time.  It’s such a brilliant combination and it’s so lovely as a summertime sipper. The simple combination of gin, lemon juice, and simple syrup works great on its own and even better when topped off with a little sparkling wine.  Here is what you should do.

1.5 oz gin

0.75 oz lemon juice

0.50 oz simple syrup

3 oz sparkling wine

Mix up the gin, lemon and simple syrup in a shaker and shake until chilled.  Put it in a champagne flute and top it with sparkling wine.  Garnish with a lemon twist and enjoy!

Classic Champagne Cocktail

The classic champagne cocktail is just a fun way to spice up your sparkling wine. It’s simple and quick with great visual appeal.  Perfect for entertaining.  Here’s what you do.

Take your champagne flute and drop in a sugar cube.  Next coat that sugar cube with bitters.  You’ll need one to two dashes of bitters to properly coat the sugar.  You can use Angostura, Fee Brothers, or any other type of bitters you may have. Finally, top it all off with some sparkling wine.

It’s that easy and it is a lot of fun.  The sugar cube help keep your sparkling wine bubbly and the combo of the bitters and sugar balances it all out nicely.