Fall Red Wine Sangria

Name: 📖 Fall Red Wine Sangria
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 70 min
Ingredients: 1, 750 ml bottle of red wine* ((Pinot Nior)); 2 Tbsp granulated sugar; 1/2 C brandy; 1/4 C orange liqueur ((Grand Mariner)); 2 C apple cider; 2 medium apples, cored and diced* ( (Pink Lady)); 1 medium orange, sliced; 3, 3" cinnamon sticks + more for serving; Optional: club soda or sparkling water for serving*

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While traditional sangria is a great drink to enjoy year round, this fall red wine sangria recipe brings special hints of autumn to your cocktail experience. Made with seasonal fruit from both apple slices and apple cider, and warm fall spices from whole cinnamon sticks, this easy fall sangria recipe is the perfect batch cocktail for fall parties and gatherings of all kinds!

Close up shot of two wine glasses filled with fall red wine sangria and garnished with a cinnamon stick. Apples and a white linen are in the background.

If you love sangria, you definitely need to make this autumn sangria! This easy batch cocktail recipe is made using a bottle of drier red wine, orange liqueur, brandy, apple cider, a little sugar (or sweetener of your choice), fresh apples and oranges, and cinnamon sticks. Option to add some bubbles too if that’s your thing. The apple cider, apples, and cinnamon make this red wine cocktail the perfect drink for fall!

If you’d prefer a white wine sangria, this Fall White Sangria with Vodka is a winner too! You will also love this delicious Apple Cider Mimosa.

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Why You’ll Love This Fall Sangria Recipe
Ingredients Needed
Recipe Variations and Substitutions
Overview: How to Make Sangria
Best Red Wines for Sangria
Making Sangria For a Crowd
Recipe FAQs
Love This Fall Sangria Recipe? You May Also Enjoy
📖 Fall Red Wine Sangria

Why You’ll Love This Fall Sangria Recipe

Level of difficulty: Sangria is an easy cocktail to make. A little measuring, a little stirring, and minimal chopping and slicing of your fruit.

Flavor: This fall red wine sangria recipe is a light and easy red wine cocktail to sip on with hints of apple and cinnamon coming through.

Time: While it takes less than 10 minutes to prep and mix up your fall sangria, overall time for this recipe is 1+ hours because it needs to chill for at least an hour to infuse the fruit flavors into this red wine cocktail. If you have time, let it sit for 3-4 hours to let the flavors really meld.

Ingredients Needed

Red Wine. A good quality, but not too expensive, bottle of red wine that is on the drier side is what you need for the best red wine sangria! I personally use Pinot Nior, but see the ‘FAQ’ section at the end of this post for other wine suggestions.

Orange Liqueur. You can use any orange liqueur you’d like. We’ve personally been using Grand Marnier, but you could also use popular orange liqueurs like Cointreau or Triple Sec.

Brandy. Brandy is a liquor made by distilling wine, making it a great add-in for sangria

Sugar. This sangria recipe has just enough sugar included to add the sweetness you want without going overboard and loading your drink with lots of added sugar.

Fresh Fruit. This fall red sangria is loaded with fresh apples and oranges! While fresh orange slices are a classic sangria ingredient, the apples give this sangria recipe a wonderful fall twist

Cinnamon. Adding cinnamon sticks to your red wine and apple cider sangria recipe really helps build the flavor profile of this batch cocktail. Don’t skip these!

See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.

Recipe Variations and Substitutions

Use a different sweetener. If you’d prefer, you can use simple syrup in place of granulated sugar. Start with a 1-for-1 substitution, and adjust to taste. If you’d like to avoid refined sugars, try pure maple syrup or agave syrup instead.

Add bubbles. If preferred, add some bubbles to your sangria by topping individual wine glasses with a splash of club soda or sparkling water. If you want to keep things boozy, adding a splash of hard apple cider is a fun addition too!

Overview: How to Make Sangria

Process shot showing how to make red wine fall sangria. Ingredients are being stirred together with a bar spoon.

STEP 1 – Add sugar, brandy, and orange liqueur to a large pitcher and stir to help the sugar begin to dissolve

Process shot showing how to make red wine fall sangria. Red wine is being poured into a tall pitcher.

STEP 2 – Add the diced apples and sliced oranges, apple cider, red wine, and 3 cinnamon sticks and stir to combine

Tall glass pitcher of fall red wine sangria. A white linen, apples, and cinnamon sticks sit around the pitcher.

STEP 3 – Place pitcher in the fridge for at least 1 hour prior to serving

Close up shot of two wine glasses filled with fall red wine sangria and garnished with a cinnamon stick. The pitcher of sangria is in the background, with apples and a white linen.

STEP 4 – Serve in wine glasses with ice and garnished with a cinnamon stick. Top with club soda or sparkling water if desired

Best Red Wines for Sangria

Select a good quality wine at a lower price point; one that you would enjoy drinking on it’s own. For red sangria, selecting a kind of wine that is drier to balance out the sweetness of the fruit is the best choice. The best red wines for sangria:

Pinot Noir
Malbec
Garnacha
Rioja
Tempranillo

Making Sangria For a Crowd

Sangria is a great cocktail idea for a large group. You can easily double (or triple) this fall apple cider sangria recipe for a great party drink! You’ll just need to find a large enough container to serve this to a crowd. Or make multiple containers of this that you can bring throughout your event to refresh your guests’ glasses.

This fall red sangria recipe would be a great large batch cocktail recipe for a fall bonfire, dinner party, movie night, girls night, or your next family gathering.

Recipe FAQs

What are the best red wines to use in sangria?

Select a good quality wine at a lower price point; one that you would enjoy drinking on it’s own. For red sangria, the type of red wine is a dry red wine to balance out the sweetness of the fruit. Some of the best varieties of red wine for sangria include: Pinot Noir, Malbec, Garnacha, Rioja, and Tempranillo.

What are the best apples to use for this fall sangria recipe?

You will want to select a heartier apple that will hold its shape when submerged in the wine cocktail mixture. Using an apple that is good for baking, like Pink Lady, Gala, Honeycrisp, Fuji, Granny Smith, Haralson, or Golden Delicious varieties will give you an apple that will taste delicious and hold it’s shape. All of these varieties of apples would be good choices in fall apple cider sangria recipes!

Can I make this sangria recipe refined sugar free?

If you are working to keep refined sugars out of your diet, you can still enjoy this fall sangria recipe with one small swap! In place of the 2 Tablespoons of granulated sugar, use 1 Tablespoons of agave syrup. Alternatively, you could replace the granulated sugar with 1-2 Tablespoons of maple syrup to incorporate another fall flavor and create a refined sugar free cocktail.

How do I make this into a sparkling sangria?

If you’d prefer some bubbles in your fall sangria, there are several great ways to do this! Topping your glass with club soda, sparkling water, or lemon-lime soda are all great ways to add bubbles to your beverage (and lighten up your drink as well). If you prefer your sangria on the boozier side (like me), skip the bubbles -OR- get a little wild and top with a sparkling hard cider. Please note, adding additional liquid to your sangria will alter the flavor profile a bit. Make sure to select bubble-options whose flavor will enhance your cocktail experience.

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