Clericot: Its History, Three Recipes (Red, Rosé and White) and Which Mexican Wines to Use

A glass pitcher sweating in the middle of the table, with orange half-moons pressed against the wall and strawberries rising and sinking among the bubbles: that is how clericot arrives at many summer tables in Mexico. It is wine with chopped fruit, a little sugar and mineral water, all well chilled and served in a glass over ice. It is a wine punch, a relative of sangria and the heir of an English drink from the 19th century.

It has two names and carries a suspicion. In Mexico it is called clericot, with a final t. In Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, it is clericó. And for anyone who holds that wine should not be touched, mixing it with fruit is little short of sacrilege. Here are its history, the answer to that objection and three recipes from our editors, plus the River Plate version with sparkling wine, each with Mexican wines that have profiles in our directory.

01Where does clericot come from?

From England, and from a word. Claret is the name the English have long given to red Bordeaux. It comes from the French clairet, a light wine between rosé and red, like the one Bordeaux sent to England in the Middle Ages, after Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry Plantagenet, the future king of England. Bordeaux reds gained color and body over the centuries, but the name stayed.

In the 19th century, the claret cup was a cold punch very popular in England. Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management, from 1861, built it from one bottle of claret, one of sparkling water, crushed ice, sugar, nutmeg, a small glass of maraschino and a sprig of borage, or cucumber peel if there was none. All of it went into a silver cup, and the ice was measured according to the heat of the day. Other recipe books of the time were already adding Champagne.

Some place the origin in India, with East India Company sailors who mixed claret with ice and fruit. We did not find a document that backs this up, so it remains a table legend.

The trip south did leave a mark. The Diccionario de la lengua española (the Spanish dictionary) lists clericó as a word from Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, taken from the English claret cup. The most repeated explanation is that it arrived with the English who lived and traded in Buenos Aires and Montevideo in the 19th century, and that the name adapted to the local ear, although we did not find a documented date. There, too, it came to be made with white wine: a drink christened for a red ended up golden.

It reached Mexico with a final t. The Diccionario de americanismos, from the Spanish-language academies, lists clericot in Mexican Spanish, from the same claret cup. Where that t came from is not documented. Here it became a pitcher drink for summer meals and year-end gatherings, and the most widespread recipe, according to Mexican recipe books, calls for red wine, lemon-lime or orange soda, mineral water and chunks of fruit.

02Is it true that clericó in Argentina is made with Champagne?

Yes, though not always. In Argentina and Uruguay, clericó is first of all white wine with fruit: orange, apple, peach and frutillas, as strawberries are called there, macerated with a little sugar before the wine arrives. Some Argentine recipe books draw the line by color: if it has red wine, they say, it is already sangria.

December there is the middle of summer, and clericó is a classic of the year-end holidays. At those parties clericó made with Champagne or sparkling wine (espumante) is common, and also with cider: the same fruit, with bubbles added at the last moment so they reach the glass alive. That recipe comes after the white one.

03How is clericot different from sangria?

They are cousins: two ways of stretching wine with fruit and cold for a big table. Sangria is Spanish and Portuguese, and in Europe its name is protected. EU Regulation 251/2014 defines it as an aromatized wine-based drink, with citrus, at 4.5 to 12% alcohol, and reserves the name as a sales description for the one made in Spain or Portugal.

At the table, the line is blurry. In Mexico, where red wine clericot is the most common, the difference lies in the accent: sangria revolves around citrus, and clericot around chopped fruit and the bubbles of mineral water.

04Does making clericot ruin the wine?

It depends on which wine goes into the pitcher. If it is a wine for cellaring, with months in barrel and years in the bottle, yes. The fruit, the sugar and the cold cover what makes it valuable, the aromas of aging and the texture time left, and its firm tannin hardens with the ice. You pay for patience nobody will notice.

With a young wine the opposite happens. A red, rosé or white without barrel, from a recent harvest, lives on its fruit and its acidity, and in the pitcher it finds more fruit: the orange underlines its acidity, the strawberries echo it, the cold lightens it. It is made to be drunk soon, and clericot is one of its natural ways of getting to the table.

Clericot was also born to be shared, with the pitcher in the middle and a long after-meal conversation in which talk weighs more than a tasting note. And for the adult who already drinks alcohol but finds wine serious or rough, it is a friendly way in. The cold and the fruit soften the first encounter without hiding what the wine is made of. Tasting a little on its own, before mixing, teaches you to recognize its fruit. If what keeps you away from red wine is the roughness, in our guide to soft and sweet red wines we explain where it comes from.

A necessary clarification: clericot is still wine. That it feels light does not take the alcohol away. It is a drink for adults 18 and older and, like any wine, it is drunk in moderation. The recipes below split one bottle among six people, and for anyone who is driving or does not drink alcohol, the same fruit with juice and mineral water makes a pitcher without wine.

05Which Mexican wine should you use to make clericot?

The rule fits on one line: use the wine you would want on its own on a hot afternoon, not the one you save for an occasion. The clues, on the label or the tech sheet:

• Young and without barrel. A label that says joven (young), or that does not mention crianza (barrel aging), reserva or roble (oak), signals a wine bottled to be drunk soon. If it fermented in stainless steel, better still, because it keeps the fruit.
• Dry, fruity and with lively acidity. The recipe supplies the sweetness, and the acidity keeps the clericot fresh once sugar, juice and water go in. An off-dry wine leaves the clericot cloying.
• Little tannin. Cold makes tannins rougher, which is why light reds hold up better, as we explain in the guide to serving red wine cold.
• Recent harvest. A young wine forgotten in the pantry arrives tired, and clericot does not rescue an oxidized wine.

What stays out: reserva and gran reserva wines, heavily oaked wines, sweet and fortified wines, and a bottle opened days ago. You can read those words without guessing with our guide to reading a wine label.

Some houses make it easy by separating their lines. Camino Corazón, in the Altos de Parras, Coahuila, distinguishes a young, barrel-free line, with Chardonnay, Rosado and Malbec meant to be drunk soon, from its aged red blends. For clericot, the first. The others deserve a glass of their own.

06How do you make red wine clericot with red berries?

Red wine is the traditional base in Mexico, and red berries repeat in the glass what a young red already brings to the nose. Here the soda gives way to orange juice and mineral water, so that sugar does not hide the wine.

Makes: about 1½ quarts (1.5 L), serves 6. Prep: 15 minutes. Rest: 1 to 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Ingredients

• 1 bottle (750 ml) young, dry, barrel-free red wine, chilled
• 9 oz (250 g) strawberries
• 4½ oz (125 g) raspberries
• 4½ oz (125 g) blackberries
• 1 orange with its peel, well washed, in thin half-moons
• 1 cup (250 ml) freshly squeezed orange juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
• 1¼ cups (300 ml) cold sparkling mineral water
• Ice, for serving

Preparation

1. Wash the fruit, hull the strawberries and cut them in quarters. Leave the raspberries and blackberries whole.
2. In a 2-quart (2 L) glass pitcher, mix the berries, orange and sugar, and let stand 10 minutes so the fruit releases its juice.
3. Add the orange juice and the wine, stir with a long spoon until the sugar dissolves and cover the pitcher.
4. Refrigerate 1 to 2 hours.
5. Just before serving, add the mineral water and stir once, gently.
6. Serve in glasses over ice with a little fruit in each.

Which Mexican reds to use

Three young reds, according to their profiles:

• Vinícola Parvada, in Parras, Coahuila: the Cardenal, a young red of equal parts Caladoc and Malbec, with no time in barrel. Caladoc is a cross of Grenache and Malbec.
• Viñas de la ERRE, in Guadalupe Valley, Baja California: its young Tempranillo, 100% Tempranillo made in stainless steel.
• Viña Cordelia, in Soledad de Graciano Sánchez, San Luis Potosí: the NOI Tinto, from the house's young line, with no barrel.

07How do you make rosé wine clericot?

Rosé lends itself to clericot almost effortlessly: it has the red fruit of a red and the freshness of a white, with no tannin in the way. With watermelon, strawberry and grapefruit it comes out lighter and paler, the color of the afternoon as it starts to wind down.

Makes: about 1½ quarts (1.5 L), serves 6. Prep: 15 minutes. Rest: 30 minutes, with the watermelon added at the end so it does not fall apart.

Ingredients

• 1 bottle (750 ml) young, dry rosé wine, chilled
• About 10½ oz (300 g) seedless watermelon
• 7 oz (200 g) strawberries
• The juice of 1 pink grapefruit
• 1 lime, in thin slices
• 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar, to taste
• 1¼ cups (300 ml) cold sparkling mineral water
• A few basil or mint leaves
• Ice, for serving

Preparation

1. Cut the watermelon into ¾-inch (2 cm) cubes and the strawberries in halves.
2. In the pitcher, dissolve the sugar in the grapefruit juice.
3. Add the strawberries, lime, herbs and wine, stir and cover the pitcher.
4. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
5. Just before serving, add the watermelon and the mineral water and stir once.
6. Serve in wine glasses or in glasses over ice.

Which Mexican rosés to use

Three rosés, according to their profiles:

• Bodegas del Viento, in the Sierra de Arteaga, Coahuila: the Ru Rosa de Uva, of Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir, with no aging and fermented in steel. The house describes it as Provençal in style.
• Tierra de Luz, in León, Guanajuato: a Rosado of Merlot that the house describes as clean, with fresh acidity.
• Casta de Vinos, in El Porvenir, Guadalupe Valley: Pitaya, a 100% Grenache rosé.

08How do you make white wine clericot?

This is the clericó of the River Plate and the one closest to what the dictionaries say: white wine with chunks of fruit. With peach, green apple and grapes it comes out golden and fresh. To choose the grape, our guide to Mexican white wines helps.

Makes: about 1½ quarts (1.5 L), serves 6. Prep: 15 minutes. Rest: 1 to 2 hours in the refrigerator.

Ingredients

• 1 bottle (750 ml) young, dry, barrel-free white wine, chilled
• 1 green apple
• 2 peaches, ripe but firm
• 5 oz (150 g) seedless green grapes
• 1 orange with its peel, well washed, in thin slices
• The juice of 1 lime
• 2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
• 1¼ cups (300 ml) cold sparkling mineral water
• Ice, for serving

Preparation

1. Cut the apple into small cubes and toss it with the lime juice so it does not darken. Cut the peaches into wedges and the grapes in halves.
2. In the pitcher, mix the apple, peaches, grapes, orange and sugar, and let stand 10 minutes.
3. Pour in the wine, stir until the sugar dissolves and cover the pitcher.
4. Refrigerate 1 to 2 hours.
5. Just before serving, add the mineral water and stir once.
6. Serve in glasses over ice, with a little fruit in each.

Which Mexican whites to use

Three young, barrel-free whites, according to their profiles:

• The Chardonnay from the young line at Camino Corazón, in the Altos de Parras.
• Vinícola Emevé, in Guadalupe Valley: Isabella, a young white with no barrel.
• Bodegas de la Parra, west of the city of Aguascalientes: the Paradoja Blanco, a Sauvignon Blanc from a certified organic vineyard, with no barrel and meant to be drunk fresh.

The River Plate variant, with sparkling wine

The party version from the south swaps the still wine and the mineral water for sparkling wine, the espumante of the Argentines. Makes: about 1¼ quarts (1.2 L), serves 6. Prep: 15 minutes. Rest: 30 minutes.

• 1 bottle (750 ml) brut or off-dry sparkling wine, very cold
• 1 cup (250 ml) freshly squeezed orange juice
• 7 oz (200 g) strawberries, in quarters
• 1 peach, in small cubes
• 3½ oz (100 g) seedless green grapes, in halves
• 1 tablespoon sugar (omit it if the sparkling wine is off-dry)

1. In the pitcher, mix the fruit with the sugar and the orange juice.
2. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes.
3. Just before serving, pour in the sparkling wine slowly, down the side of the tilted pitcher, and barely stir with a long spoon.
4. Serve right away in glasses, with fruit in each.

From brut nature to sweet, the sugar levels are in our guide to Mexican sparkling wines. For this recipe the house's simplest sparkling wine is enough. The ones with long aging on the lees shine better on their own. In Querétaro, where a good share of the wineries are devoted to bubbles, there are two options:

• Cava 57, in San Juan del Río: its Palomas 57 sparkling wine, in Brut Nature or off-dry.
• Bodegas Jacques & Cie, in Tequisquiapan: a house devoted only to traditional-method sparkling wines, with a Brut and a Brut Rosé.

09How do you serve clericot, and which mistakes should you avoid?

The mistakes are avoided before the wine touches the pitcher:

• Overripe fruit. Ripe but firm, in even, bite-size pieces. Fruit that falls apart, like banana, clouds the wine.
• Too much sugar. The fruit and juice already sweeten. Use a little at the start, dissolved before the wine, and correct at the end.
• Ice in the pitcher. It melts and dilutes everything. It goes in the glass, or in the form of frozen fruit.
• Too much soda. It sweetens and covers the wine. Mineral water gives the fizz without sugar.
• Too long a rest. One or two hours are enough. With more time the fruit softens and the citrus peel starts to turn bitter.

At the table, the pitcher stays cool in a bucket of ice water. Wine glasses show off the color, and wide glasses leave room for the fruit.

As for how long it keeps, clericot is made for the day, so it is worth calculating the amount for the table. If there is some left over, strain out the fruit, and the covered pitcher will last in the refrigerator until the next day. That is less than the two or three days we give an opened white in our guide to how long opened wine lasts, because the fruit speeds it up. With sparkling wine, the bubbles are gone in a few hours.

The next pitcher can start in a tasting room: ask for the house's youngest wine, the one bottled to be drunk soon, and taste it on its own to see which fruit the clericot will have to hold up. The houses in this story have their profiles in the directory of Mexican wineries (in Spanish), and under the topic Learn about wine there are more guides to choosing and serving.