Sangria Roja Punch

Red wine, brandy, and seasonal fruit scaled for a communal pitcher — Spain's 18th-century wine punch made internationally famous at the 1964 New York World's Fair.

Sangria Roja Punch is the large-format communal presentation of Spain's most internationally recognized wine drink, scaled for the communal punch bowl or large pitcher that has been the natural serving vessel for sangria in Spanish culture since the drink first gained its modern identity. Sangria has been made in the Iberian Peninsula since at least the 18th century, when wine mixed with water, fruit, and spices was a common everyday practice in regions where the summers are hot and still wine too heavy to drink at full strength. The name derives from the Spanish sangre (blood), directly describing the deep red of the traditional formula's base wine. The drink's transformation from a regional Iberian practice into an internationally recognized cocktail occurred primarily through the 1964 New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, where visitors to the Spanish Pavilion encountered and enthusiastically adopted it. Spanish immigration to the United States, the expansion of Spanish restaurants internationally, and the growing global market for Spanish Rioja and Tempranillo wines all sustained sangria's international profile through the following decades. The punch format preserves the traditional pitcher presentation while scaling proportions for group service: red wine, chopped seasonal fruit, a small measure of brandy or triple sec, sugar, and a topper of orange juice or sparkling water.