Avenue Vine

We rounded up 10 winetail recipes from top restaurants across the country, including the Stave Wine Lounge in Napa Valley, the Arbor Grill at Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C. and the Sweet Lowdown restaurant in Atlanta. Mix a winetail at home so you can see why wine's so great in a cocktail.

You'll find plenty of fizz for your next brunch or dessert, with sparkling winetails topped off with anything from Godiva dark chocolate liqueur to apricot brandy to fresh-squeezed blood orange juice. There are oodles of options for reds and whites, too, from a sangria relative that includes Pinot Grigio and Red Bull to a highball with sake and lychee juice that's super suitable as a before-dinner drink.

So round up the gang or call that certain someone and prepare to sip something special. Cheers!

1.) Stella Nera:
This winetail recipe comes from Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., a century-old French Renaissance chateau built by George W. Vanderbilt to include 8,000 acres, 250 rooms and 75 acres of landscaped gardens — the largest privately owned home in America. Served at the estate's Arbor Grill restaurant, Stella Nera means "Black Star" and makes a refreshing choice for a spring evening.

Ingredients:
1 oz. blackberry liqueur
1 oz. creme de cassis
5 oz. Chateau Biltmore Blanc de Blanc Brut or similar quality champagne
star fruit, sliced

Instructions:
1. Pour cassis and blackberry liquor into champagne flute.
2. Pour sparkling wine into the glass.
3. Garnish with half a star fruit slice. - Recipe courtesy Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C.

2.) Southern Belle:
Visitors to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., can explore the estate winery that was built on the site of the former dairy operation. It creates the prime ingredient for the Southern Belle cocktail featured at Biltmore's Arbor Grill restaurant. This sweet and sparkly beverage has a light, fresh apricot flavor and is named for the sippers it would most appeal to.

Ingredients:
1 tbs. amaretto
1 tbs. apricot brandy
4 oz. Chateau Biltmore Blanc de Blanc Brut or similar quality champagne
2 fresh apricot wedges

Instructions:
1. Pour amaretto and apricot brandy into champagne flute.
2. Pour sparkling wine into the glass.
3. Garnish with speared apricot wedges. - Recipe courtesy Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C.

3.) Running Bull:
Stephen A. Gobourne, managing partner of Sweet Lowdown in Atlanta, says this concoction is in the sangria family and appropriate before or after dinner. "The name's a play on 'running with the bulls,' which it may make you feel like," he says. Sweet Lowdown is a recently opened eatery in downtown that features modern Southern cuisine with French and Asian influences.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 oz. citrus vodka
1 oz. Red Bull
6 muddled red grapes
1/2 oz. lychee puree
1 1/2 oz. Pinot Grigio

Instructions:
1. Combine vodka, Red Bull, muddled grape, lychee puree and crushed ice in a cocktail shaker.
2. Pour into a wine glass.
3. Add Pinot Grigio, garnish with a red grape and serve. - Recipe courtesy Sweet Lowdown, Atlanta

4.) Tropical High:
It seemed only fitting that the specialty cocktail served in the Stave Wine Lounge in California's Napa Valley would involve sparkling wine as an ingredient, says sales and marketing director Carla Bosco. "When we were developing the recipe for the menu, the owners and I literally just sat around and tried any number of ingredients mixed with wine, and this was one of the very best," she says. "The flavor is just really intense."

Stave also serves winetails made with peach or raspberry sorbet. "It's not that hard to find, we just use the stuff made by Häagen-Dazs," says Bosco.

Ingredients:
1 oz. mango sorbet
4 oz. sparkling wine

Instructions:
1. Let sorbet soften slightly.
2. Pour one half of the sparkling wine into a champagne glass.
3. Add softened sorbet and stir.
4. Fill with the remaining sparkling wine and stir again. - Recipe courtesy Carla Bosco and Stave Wine Lounge, Napa, Calif.

5.) Pumpernickel Cocktail:
A house favorite at the Restaurant Eugene in the affluent and eclectic Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, the Pumpernickel Cocktail is a creation of house mixologist Greg Best, who features three specialty cocktails — one always a classic — from his repertoire each Friday.

Ingredients:
1/2 oz. Godiva Dark Chocolate Liqueur
3 oz. Brut Champagne
shaved swath of lemon rind

Add ingredients in order to a champagne flute. - Recipe courtesy mixologist Greg Best and the Restaurant Eugene, Atlanta

6.) Ultra-Violet:
"One of the prime ingredients in this cocktail is a unique red wine reduction," says Greg Best, house mixologist at the Restaurant Eugene in Atlanta, described by the New York Times as a "small and friendly restaurant . . . .(where) the menu can read like a Southern safari."

"To make this reduction you will need 9-12 ounces of a fairly fruit-driven wine such as Zinfandel, and about an ounce and a half of ground licorice root, which is available online through a number of herbal websites," Best says. "Cook down the licorice root in red wine until the liquid has reduced by three quarters leaving it more viscous and syrup like."

Ingredients:
1 1/2 oz. Blanco Tequila
1/2 oz. fresh lemon juice
1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1 tsp. red wine reduction.

Instructions:
1. Shake the first four ingredients with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
2. Drizzle in the red wine reduction to leave a swirled appearance. - Recipe courtesy mixologist Greg Best and the Restaurant Eugene, Atlanta

7.) The Sicilian:
The Sicilian is the specialty drink most frequently requested by first-time visitors to the Cafe Gutenberg, a coffee bar, restaurant and wine lounge in Richmond, Va. "It evolved from a concept of using fresh ingredients, even in beverages," says the cafe's general manager, Stephanie Hagen. "It's very European, too, a drink that celebrates the weekend, which should be a long, relaxing break from work." The cafe offers four beverages featuring Cava, a distinctly Spanish sparkling white wine, and all sell well at weekend brunch.

2 parts Cava, Spanish sparkling wine
1 part fresh-squeezed blood orange juice

"It's nothing fancy," says Hagen, "just pour it into a champagne glass and serve." - Recipe courtesy Cafe Gutenberg in Richmond, Va.

8.) Colonial Syllabub:
Served today in Colonial Williamsburg’s King’s Arms Tavern and the Williamsburg Inn is a beverage that was included in a recipe book printed in 1742 in colonial America titled The Compleat Housewife. Popular in early Virginia where they were considered to be beverages, these fortified dessert drinks began to lose favor in the 19th century as ice cream became fashionable. Having regained their popularity, syllabubs are now commonly served as a dessert or after-dinner drink garnished with berries and fresh mint.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup dry sherry
2 tbs. grated lemon peel
1/4 cup lemon juice
2/3 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
sprigs of mint for garnish
assortment of fresh berries for garnish

Instructions:
1. In large bowl, combine wine, sherry, lemon peel and lemon juice. Add sugar until dissolved.
2. Whip cream in a large bowl until it forms medium stiff peaks. Fold into wine mixture.
3. Spoon into eight wine or martini glasses, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. The mixture will separate and be ready to enjoy the next day.
4. Garnish with fresh mint and berries. - Recipe courtesy the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Williamsburg, Va.

9.) Ice Wine Poor Boy Cocktail:
The Poor Boy Cocktail was created as bartender Darcy O' Neil's modest response to the recent surge in "the world's most expensive cocktail" phenomenon. "Most of these cocktails just included expensive vintage wines, like Sauternes and champagne, to artificially inflate the prices to get the title," he says. "The Poor Boy is a reasonable facsimile with an affordable price tag, so everyone could enjoy it." O'Neil, who is based in London, Ontario, writes a blog about his mixology experiences on his The Art of Drink website.

Ingredients:
1 oz. ice wine
1 oz. VSOP Cognac
4 oz. champagne

Instructions:
1. Add VSOP Cognac to champagne flute or martini glass and then add champagne.
2. Add ice wine last.
3. Garnish with a lemon twist or slice of star fruit if available. - Recipe courtesy Darcy O'Neil, mixologist and author of The Art of Drink website, London, Ontario.

10.) Lychee Sake Splash:
Sake is the star of this winetail that’s a hit with people who want a cocktail with less alcohol, says Mark Bright, consulting wine director of the Oola Restaurant in San Francisco for just over a year.

"If you can find a fresh lychee for the garnish, that really makes the cocktail," he says. "It's kind of the snack at the end."

Ingredients:
2 oz. sake
splash of Cointreau
1 oz. lychee juice
fresh lychee garnish, optional

Add all ingredients to the glass and stir once. - Recipe courtesy Oola Restaurant and sommelier Mark Bright, San Francisco

Source: “Bar Chefs Share: 10 Great Winetail Recipes,” Rose Kennedy, Fine Living, March 22, 2007; Photo: Jeff Romaniuk