Clericot (cleh-ree-KOH) is what a Mexican family pours at weddings, backyard parties and the big dinners on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve: a pitcher of red wine and diced fruit, stretched with lemon-lime soda and sparkling water and served very cold. If you know sangria, you’re close, but clericot is lighter and fizzier, with more fruit and usually no brandy. The ratio is simple, one bottle of wine per pitcher, and the only real skill is timing: the soda and the ice go in at the last minute, or the punch arrives flat and diluted.
What clericot is, and how it differs from sangria
How do you make clericot? Dissolve 2 tbsp sugar in ½ cup orange juice and 2 tbsp lime juice, add about 1⅓ lb (600 g) of diced fruit and a 750 ml bottle of young red wine, and chill for 1 hour. To serve, slowly add 2½ cups (600 ml) of cold lemon-lime soda and 1⅔ cups (400 ml) of sparkling water, stir once, and put the ice in the glasses. 80 minutes (20 hands-on) for 8 glasses.
In Mexico it’s made mostly with red wine, sometimes with white. In Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay the same drink is called clericó and is usually white.
Sangria and clericot share wine, fruit, sugar and something fizzy, which is why they get mixed up. The differences are in the balance:
| Mexican clericot | Spanish sangria | |
|---|---|---|
| Wine | Red or white, young | Red, young |
| Fruit | Lots, mixed and diced: apple, strawberry, grape, peach, melon | Mainly citrus, plus peach or apple |
| Spirits | Usually none | Often brandy or another liqueur |
| Spice | None | Sometimes cinnamon |
| Fizz | Lemon-lime soda and sparkling water, a generous amount | A splash of soda at the end, optional |
So clericot drinks lighter and less boozy, closer to a wine spritzer with fruit. One more detail if you’re shopping: in the EU, bottled “sangria” is a protected name for a product made in Spain or Portugal with 4.5 % to under 12 % alcohol.
Time and difficulty. An hour of chilling does most of the work, after about 20 minutes of chopping. Easy: no cooking, just cold ingredients and good timing.
Ingredients for one pitcher, with US and UK swaps
The recipe fills a 3-quart (3-liter) pitcher and gives 8 glasses of about 10 fl oz (300 ml) over ice. Plan on one 750 ml bottle per pitcher and scale from there.
Which wine to buy
A cheap, young, fruity red with little oak: Merlot, Garnacha (Grenache), young Tempranillo or a plain table red. In a US store, an inexpensive Chilean Merlot or Spanish Garnacha is ideal; in the UK, a supermarket own-label young red does the job. Look for 12 to 13.5 % ABV on the label.
Skip anything labeled crianza, reserva or “oak-aged”. Wood and tannin turn bitter against soda and fruit, and you’d be paying for flavor nobody will taste. The wine is the only expensive ingredient here, so that’s where to save.
Soda and sparkling water
The soda brings sweetness and bubbles; the sparkling water brings bubbles only.
- US. Sprite, 7UP or Squirt (grapefruit, also common in Mexico). For the water, Topo Chico or Peñafiel from the Latin aisle, or any club soda or seltzer.
- UK. Clear sparkling lemonade, such as Sprite or 7UP or a supermarket own brand. Not cloudy still lemonade, and in the US not still lemonade either: you need the fizz.
- Sparkling water with a strong mineral taste can read as salty in a punch; a neutral one is better.
Using only sparkling water, no soda, makes a drier clericot that tastes more of wine. Add sugar a spoonful at a time and taste, since the soda supplied most of the sweetness.
Fruit that holds up in wine
Firm fruit survives a few hours of soaking: apple, pear, grapes, strawberries, peach, melon, clementines and orange. Allow about 1⅓ lb (600 g) per bottle, cut in ½ in (1 cm) dice so it fits in a glass and can be eaten with a spoon. Leave out banana, which darkens and clouds the wine, and very ripe watermelon or kiwi, which fall apart. Orange with the peel adds aroma, but after 4 hours the white pith makes the wine bitter, so peel it for a long soak.
Equipment. A 3-quart (3-liter) pitcher with a lid or plastic wrap, a knife and board, a citrus squeezer and a long spoon.
How to make clericot
- Chill everything the day before. Cold wine, soda and water mean less ice later, and less ice means less water in the glass.
- Make a quick syrup in the pitcher. Sugar stirred into the citrus juice dissolves in a minute; poured straight into cold wine it sits on the bottom.
- Coat the fruit in the juice, then add the wine. The lime keeps the apple from browning.
- Soak it covered in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Top up and serve. Soda and water slowly down the side, one stir, ice in the glasses.
How long to soak the fruit
After 30 minutes it already tastes fruity, but the apple is still pale inside. I give it an hour at least, and it holds well up to 4 hours in the fridge. The sign it’s ready: the apple is stained red on the outside and tastes of wine when you bite it.
Longer doesn’t help. Strawberries go soft, apple turns mealy and orange peel turns bitter. If you need to get ahead further, dice the fruit the day before, keep it covered in the juice in the fridge, and add the wine on the day.
Keeping it cold and fizzy without watering it down
- Top up only the pitcher you’re about to pour. In an open pitcher, an hour later the bubbles are mostly gone.
- Pour the fizz down the side of the tilted pitcher and stir once. Dumping it in and stirring hard knocks out half the bubbles.
- Ice goes in the glasses. Ice in the pitcher melts while it sits and you end up drinking water.
- Frozen grapes chill a glass without diluting it, and get eaten at the end.
Clericot for a crowd, 20 to 30 guests
For a long dinner with other drinks on the table, I plan on 2 glasses per adult, and 3 if clericot is the only drink.
| Guests (2 glasses each) | Red wine | Lemon-lime soda | Sparkling water | Orange juice | Lime juice | Sugar | Diced fruit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 (1 pitcher, 8 glasses) | 1 bottle | 2½ cups (600 ml) | 1⅔ cups (400 ml) | ½ cup (120 ml) | 2 tbsp (30 ml) | 2 tbsp (25 g) | 1⅓ lb (600 g) |
| 10 (3 pitchers, 24 glasses) | 3 bottles | 7½ cups (1.8 L) | 5 cups (1.2 L) | 1½ cups (360 ml) | 6 tbsp (90 ml) | 6 tbsp (75 g) | 4 lb (1.8 kg) |
| 20 (5 pitchers, 40 glasses) | 5 bottles | about 3 qt (3 L) | about 2 qt (2 L) | 2½ cups (600 ml) | ⅔ cup (150 ml) | ⅔ cup (125 g) | 6½ lb (3 kg) |
| 30 (8 pitchers, 64 glasses) | 8 bottles | about 5 qt (4.8 L) | about 3⅓ qt (3.2 L) | 4 cups (960 ml) | 1 cup (240 ml) | 1 cup (200 g) | 10½ lb (4.8 kg) |
Make-ahead plan for Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve
For 20 or more, don’t mix it all in one big dispenser: the last glasses would be flat and watery.
- The day before. Wine, soda and sparkling water into the fridge, or into a cooler with ice if they don’t fit. Freeze grapes. Squeeze the oranges and limes and refrigerate the juice, covered.
- On the day, a few hours ahead (no more than 4). Dice the fruit and make the base: sweetened juice, fruit and wine, in a stockpot or covered containers in the fridge. For 20 guests that’s about 5 quarts (5 liters) of base.
- During the party. Ladle a fifth of the base (for 20 guests) into the pitcher, add one pitcher’s worth of soda and water, and pour. When it’s empty, build the next one. Every pitcher is as fizzy as the first.
On the table, a cold, fruity punch is a good match for the heavy, slightly sweet roasts of a Latin Christmas dinner: a Mexican adobo pork leg, a Latin Christmas turkey with picadillo stuffing or a pork loin in prune sauce. The creamy Mexican apple salad on the dessert table is cold and fruity too.
White wine, spiked and alcohol-free versions
- White wine clericot. Same amounts with a young, dry white such as Sauvignon Blanc, and pale fruit: melon, peach, green grapes, pineapple, green apple. Sharper and more refreshing, good for daytime. Rosé works the same way.
- Spiked. Some people add ¼ cup (60 ml) vodka or orange liqueur per pitcher. That takes each glass to about 12 g of alcohol, so tell your guests.
- Less sweet. No sugar, and 4 cups (1 liter) of sparkling water in place of the soda and water.
- Alcohol-free, for kids. Swap the wine for 750 ml (25 fl oz) of 100 % purple grape juice and skip the sugar, since the juice is already sweet. For something tarter, use 750 ml of chilled, strong hibiscus water with the sugar from the recipe.
Keep the kids’ pitcher obvious. Grape-juice clericot is exactly the same color as the wine version. Use a different-looking pitcher and give it a fruit the adult one doesn’t have, such as mango cubes, so every glass can be told apart at a glance.
How strong is it, and drinking responsibly
With a 12.5 % wine, one glass has about 9 g of alcohol, and the punch is around 5 % ABV. That’s about two-thirds of a US standard drink (14 g) and roughly 1.1 UK units, against about 15 g in a 5 fl oz (150 ml) glass of the same wine. It goes down easily because it’s cold, sweet and fizzy, and over a long night the glasses add up.
- It contains alcohol, so it’s not for minors. The legal drinking age is 21 in the US and 18 in the UK and Mexico.
- Not for anyone pregnant or driving.
- Keep water and an alcohol-free pitcher on the table; non-drinking adults reach for it too.
Why it went wrong, and how to fix it
- Flat and watery. The ice and soda went into the pitcher long before serving. Next pitcher, ice in the glasses and fizz at the last minute. To rescue this one, add a splash of cold wine and chill 10 minutes.
- Bitter. Oaky wine, orange peel soaked over 4 hours, or limes squeezed hard against the peel.
- Cloying. Sweet soda plus sugar plus a sweet wine. Taste before adding sugar, and lengthen with sparkling water.
- Tastes only of soda. Too much mixer. Don’t go over 1 quart (1 liter) of fizzy mixer per bottle of wine.
- Sugar on the bottom. It went into cold wine instead of the juice.
Storing leftovers
- The base without fizz (wine, juice and fruit), covered in the fridge, is at its best for up to 4 hours and still fine the next day, with softer fruit.
- Once the soda is in, drink it the same evening: by the second hour it’s flat.
- On the table, don’t leave the pitcher out of the fridge for more than 2 hours because of the cut fruit, less in hot sun.
- Leftovers. Strain out the fruit, keep the liquid covered in the fridge for 1 to 2 days, and add fresh soda or sparkling water when you serve it again.
Don’t freeze the mixed punch: it goes flat and thawed fruit is watery.
Clericot FAQ
Can I use boxed wine? Yes, as long as it’s a young red and tastes fresh. A 3-liter box equals four bottles, so it makes four pitchers.
Is clericot the same as sangria? Close relatives, not the same drink. Clericot has more fruit and more fizz, usually no brandy or cinnamon, and is lighter, which is why it’s poured by the pitcher at long parties.
What if mine is too strong or too sweet? Too strong, add cold sparkling water, never ice in the pitcher. Too sweet, a squeeze of lime and more sparkling water.
What else to serve for drinks? If you want something hot for the same night, Mexican Christmas punch with tejocotes is made in one pot for kids and adults. Beer drinkers will be happier with a michelada made with Mexican lager.
Nutrition
Per glass (one-eighth of the pitcher, including its share of fruit), worked out ingredient by ingredient with a 12.5 % wine:
- Calories: 170 kcal
- Protein: 1 g
- Carbohydrates: 26 g
- Fat: 0 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Sugars: 21 g
- Sodium: 13 mg
About 64 kcal come from the alcohol in the wine, the rest from the sugars in the soda, fruit and juice. With sparkling water instead of soda and no sugar it drops to about 125 kcal. The grape-juice version comes to about 135 kcal a glass, with more sugar than the wine one. Sodium depends on your sparkling water, since some mineral waters carry a lot more.
I put clericot on the table when the main dish is a roast and the night will run late, because it’s easier going than wine on its own. The lesson it took me a few pitchers to learn is not to add the fizz early: I keep the base in the fridge and build one pitcher at a time, and Dylan’s comes in its own jug, with mango, so nobody has to ask whose glass is whose. Josnaisis.