Mixing red wine with cola is a great combo
Say wine, snacks or haute cuisine and the food lovers of online food magazine FavorFlav know where to drink, how to eat and what to cook. This time our chefs serve you: mixing red wine with cola is a great combo.
What do you do when you have to keep a festival full of thirsty people sweet and you're stuck with two thousand liters of nasty wine? In the Basque Country, they solve that creatively: mix in cola, pour it out, and let the party begin. That's the start of kalimotxo, a typical Basque mix that is still wildly popular.
This is the story: in 1972 a group of friends was responsible for the drinks supply at the Saint Nicholas Festival in Getxo, near Bilbao. They were left with two thousand liters of spoiled red wine and they didn't want to flush it down the drain. A waste of money and the budget was tight. What now? They decided to mix it one-on-one with Coca-Cola. Festival-goers loved it (or they were just really thirsty) and a new drink was born: Kalimotxo, pronounced: ka-li-MOT-sjo.
Carton box wine
And kalimotxo is still a popular drink in Northern Spain. Admittedly: especially on the beach, in the pub and in student houses. Of course, you use cheap wine for this, the cardboard boxes of Don Simon on the bottom shelf of the supermarket are good enough. Although, some experienced tasters opt for quality wine. Ryan Meliker, sommelier at Ritz-Carlton in Denver, recommends a cheerful Rioja and Nicky Beyries, bar manager of Laszlo in San Francisco, mixes a grenache or a shiraz: nice and fruity.
Never heard of it
Kalimotxo is spreading around the world, as Basques also ask for it on vacation. ‘I was working in a Belgian beer house in New York when someone ordered kalimotxo from me,’ says Emily Saladino, the editor-in-chief of wine magazine Wine Enthusiast. ‘Never heard of it. I said: we only have beer and wine, we don’t sell spirits. But the guest explained to me how I could make a kalimotxo for her. I thought immediately: that sounds good. The other bartenders there absolutely disagreed with me.’
Only with the real thing
Is the Netherlands ready for kalimotxo? It’s not hard to mix: half cola, half wine. And it must be Coca-Cola, according to the experts. When Pepsi started selling their hospitality cola mixed with red wine to beach bars a few years ago, they faced strong Spanish protests. No, no, it can only be called kalimotxo if the one and only real cola is in it. Come on, set your prejudice aside, just taste it: less alcohol than an Aperol Spritz or a gin and tonic and you’re immediately back in your memories of vacation in Bilbao and San Sebastian.
Source: Matador Network
