While I’ve been making various sangria recipes for nearly 20 years, this fall sangria recipe is an all-time favorite. We’ve tested and perfected which fruits, boozes, and wines work best for the ultimate fall cocktail experience! By following our simple 4-step instructions you’ll have a batch of sangria ready to sip on in no time!
This easy batch cocktail is the perfect for fall parties and gatherings of all kinds! We make our recipe with 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. We’ve outlined the best red wines to use for sangria as well as the best apples to use in sangria below to help you achieve the very best results!
If you’d prefer a white wine sangria, this Fall White Sangria with Vodka is a winner too! You will also love our Apple Cider Mimosa.
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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.
Fall Red Sangria Recipe Ingredients
- 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.
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
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!
How To Make Red Fall Sangria
STEP 1 – Add sugar, brandy, and orange liqueur to a large pitcher and stir to help the sugar begin to dissolve
STEP 2 – Add the diced apples and sliced oranges, apple cider, red wine, and 3 cinnamon sticks and stir to combine
STEP 3 – Place pitcher in the fridge for at least 1 hour prior to serving
STEP 4 – Serve in wine glasses with ice and garnished with a cinnamon stick. Top with club soda or sparkling water if desired
Fall Sangria Recipe Variations
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!
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.
What does this Fall Sangria Recipe pair with?
You can sip this fall sangria on it’s own or pair with with a variety of dishes. Pairing it with a charcuterie board is always a fun choice! If you’re looking to enjoy this with a meal, red wine sangria is often considered to pair nicely with heartier meat dishes.
Fall Sangria Recipe Red Wine FAQs
The longer the fruit sits in the wine, brandy, and orange liqueur the more time it has to infuse it’s sweet and fresh flavors into your drink! Making sangria the night before allows time for the flavors to really blend together.
Sangria is best served chilled (even red wine sangria)! You can do this by storing it in the fridge in the serving container you plan to use while the ingredients soak and meld together. You can also serve it on the rocks by filling glasses with ice.
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Red Fall Sangria Recipe
Ingredients
- 1, 750 ml bottle of red wine* (Pinot Nior)
- 2 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ½ C brandy
- ¼ 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*
Instructions
- Add sugar, brandy, and orange liqueur to a large pitcher and stir to help the sugar begin to dissolve
- Add the apples, oranges, apple cider, red wine, and 3 cinnamon sticks and stir to combine
- Place pitcher in the fridge for at least 1 hour prior to serving
- Serve in wine glasses with ice and garnished with a cinnamon stick. Top with club soda or sparkling water if desired
Maren says
Made this for a gathering with friends tonight and it was a big hit! Very delicious and not overly sweet. Will definitely make again!
Meredith says
so happy this sangria was a hit!! thanks for giving the recipe a try 🙂
Meredith says
Best fall drink recipe!
Marge says
such a great cocktail with fresh apple cider!
Meredith says
so happy to hear you love this fall sangria recipe too Marge!
Luci says
Soooooo good. I used a cabernet and it turned out great.
ourlovelanguageisfood says
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it!! Cheers!
Claire says
So maybe a silly question but is it one 750 ml bottle of wine or 1750 ml bottle of wine?
Meredith says
Hi Claire – just a standard size bottle. According to Google “A standard wine bottle contains 750 milliliters (ml) of wine, which is the most common size worldwide and often yields about 4 to 6 glasses of wine.” Cheers!
Mary says
Delish. Loved it!
ourlovelanguageisfood says
I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this fall sangria recipe! Cheers!
Victoria says
Mmmmm! I mixed this up this afternoon to enjoy at the end of a warm day and was not disappointed. Although the cinnamon says fall, the citrus says summer cooler to me! I love the orange liqueur, and did add sparking water for some bubbles. It’s perfect to sip on this hot evening.
ourlovelanguageisfood says
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed this after a fun day! Thank you so much for trying my sangria recipe – cheers!
Vivienne says
What a fabulous discovery! Apples in sangria, who knew??? Love a good sangria and this is one of the best I’ve had.
ourlovelanguageisfood says
So happy to hear that you loved this one too! Cheers ❤
M. says
I absolutely LOVE this fall twist on my favorite drink! 5-stars, will definitely be making this a lot this fall.
ourlovelanguageisfood says
I’m so happy to hear this! Cheers!
David says
What’s not to like! Spice, fruit, wine=perfection
ourlovelanguageisfood says
So glad to hear you loved this fall sangria too, cheers!