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
Used as a lengthener rather than a base spirit: poured cold and last to top up a build so the bubbles survive, adding effervescence, acidity and low-proof volume. It goes in at 30 to 60 ml where it is an ingredient, and simply “to top” where it is the length. It’s the classic top for a Mimosa and pairs well with orange juice, peach purée and light liqueurs.
Substitutes for Dry sparkling wine
Any brut sparkling wine swaps in one for one: cava, crémant, brut prosecco or Champagne. Extra dry and dry, despite the names, are sweeter than brut, and many proseccos are extra dry, so check the label. Demi-sec and sweeter styles make the drink cloying. Without sparkling wine, top the drink with soda water: it keeps the bubbles but loses the wine's body and acidity and comes out weaker.
Extra dry, dry and sec
Under EU rules, extra dry means 12–17 g of sugar per liter and dry or sec 17–32 g, against under 12 for brut.
Carbonated wine
Wine given its bubbles by added carbon dioxide rather than by fermentation. In the EU it is sold as aerated sparkling or semi-sparkling wine, depending on the pressure.
