As we enjoy the wonders of Autumn, I always love to celebrate the change of the season through the bounty of fruits and vegetables that are ripe and bursting with flavor at the moment. Both Pears and Apples are the quintessential fruity flavors of fall, and I look for new ways of enjoying them each year. For fall holiday entertaining how about serving a Sparkling Pear Spritzer?   And who doesn’t like a sparkly chilled drink to kick start any fun event?  A Spritzer is normally made from a white wine base, and then topped with carbonated water.

Spritzers are lower in calories and alcohol, that means you can drink at least a couple…. right???   I decided to use local pear juice, as a base for our featured Sparkling Pear Spritzer!  Pears have a unique sweet and citrus like flavor, that tastes wonderful with ginger and vanilla! So happy Fall Y’all and Slainte!

Here is the recipe:

Pear Sparkling Spritzer with Vanilla and Ginger

  • 4 oz of sauvignon blanc (chilled)
  • 2 oz pear juice
  • 1 oz ginger simple syrup
  • 1 oz sparkling water (enough to top off the glass)
  • Ice
  • (for the ginger syrup)
  • 1 cup of water
  • 1 cup of sugar
  • ¼ cup or 1 inch of sliced Ginger root stem (roughly chopped in pieces)
  • 2 vanilla beans (split and scraped)
  • (for the garnish)
  • Small sprig of Rosemary

How to make it

  1. To make the Ginger Vanilla syrup place the sugar, water, vanilla, ginger root, and boil together for 5 minutes. Cover and allow it to sit for an hour or overnight and strain before using.
  2. To serve place ice in glass. fill the glass with the chilled white wine, simple syrup and stir.  Top the glass with a little sparkling water.
  3. Garnish with a spring of Rosemary!

Enjoy as always!

Shamrock and Peach