Cocktails with Dry sparkling wine
Dry sparkling wine is a bubbly white or rosé wine finished at the driest end of the sweetness scale, usually labeled brut.
ABV11–12%
How it's used
When it tops a drink, pour it cold and last, straight into the glass, so the bubbles survive; shaking would flatten them. It adds fizz, acidity and length with little strength, which is its job in a Russian Spring Punch.
Substitutes for Dry sparkling wine
Brut (cava, crémant, prosecco or Champagne)
Brut is what matters.
Extra dry prosecco
Sweeter than brut, so check the label.
Soda water
Top up with it when there is no sparkling wine: the bubbles stay, but the wine’s body and acidity go and the drink is weaker.
Demi-sec and sweeter styles
Not substitutes: they make the drink cloying.
On the label
- “brut”, “extra dry”, “sec”
- The names run backwards: extra dry and sec are sweeter than brut. By the EU bands, brut nature is under 3 g of sugar per liter, extra brut 0–6 and brut under 12. Extra dry is 12–17, sec 17–32, demi-sec 32–50 and doux over 50.
