"A soft and sweet cocktail flavored with vanilla, pineapple, dark rum, and your choice of white wine. Best served on the rocks!"
Over the past few years, The Husband has become sort of a wine connoisseur, and I can’t say that I blame him – wine is fun.
It’s always a great conversation piece, the right wine can completely transform a dish, and it’s the perfect drink to sip while socializing with friends.
My wine palate has also grown over the years, but I tend to be more in the sipping category.
I like to enjoy wine by itself, without any other flavors masking or altering it.
This tends to be where The Husband and IÂ disagree, since he likes his bold, punch-you-in-the-face reds to go with his meals while I want something more… Â mild.
And while there are plenty of sweet reds I like to supplement our wine stock with, I’ve been trying to branch out to more into milder white wines (and, bonus: whites go great with seafood!).
I still haven’t found my go-to white wine yet, but I’ve found a few interesting wines along the way… and, well, also some not-so great wines.
Now, I know making a wine cocktail isn’t exactly the best way to appreciate a white wine – but it is a great way to use up that bottle of white wine that just didn’t have the taste I’m after.
I mean, this is just like any other cocktail, right?
Sometimes a drink just tastes better with a little help from something else.
The Star Gazer has a soft, sweet taste, thanks to the vanilla and pineapple combination (which I was skeptical about at first, but it’s actually quite good!).
Your choice of rum will also really impact the flavor of this drink, too – I used Goslings because I had it on hand from a cake I made last month and it turned out to be a good compliment.
I also liked squeezing the lime into the drink, but The Husband didn’t – he didn’t care for the sweet & sour combo.
Actually, he would probably prefer to drink the white wine straight, nasty tasting or no, but he humored me with my wine cocktail experiments.
I don’t think I’ll ever graduate to the level of wino he’s obtained, so this is a perfect compromise for me as I (slowly) hunt for that perfect white wine.
So, how about you? Do you like your wine “straight up” or do you like to mix it with other flavors?
Tell me about it in the comments!
Star Gazer Wine Cocktail
Ingredients
- 2 oz chardonnay (about 4 tbsp)
- 1 oz dark rum (about 2 tbsp)
- 1/2 oz vanilla sryup (about 1 tbsp)
- 1 oz pineapple juice (about 1 tbsp)
- 1 lime wedge
Instructions
- Fill a cocktail shaker with ice. Add chardonnay, dark rum, vanilla syrup, and pineapple juice. Shake and strain into a glass. Garnish with a lime wedge.
