My birthday is in June and I have just gotten around to writing a little about my amazing dinner that David cooked for me. We had two thin crust pizzas and some perfectly delightful Italian red. We also had several French 75’s. If I had to pick a favorite Sparkling Wine cocktail this would be it.

Something I realized recently is that the fewer the ingredients in a cocktail the greater the reward for using higher quality ingredients. With that in mind, especially since a French 75 is mostly sparkling wine, I suggest buying a wine you would enjoy drinking by itself and same goes for the gin.

Ingredients:

1 bottle of sparkling wine
1 oz. gin (per glass)
1/2 oz. lemon juice
1/2 oz. simple syrup
1 piece of lemon peel (garnish)
Champagne flutes

Chill the sparkling wine well before you plan on drinking. A good tip for the simple syrup is to keep some on hand at all times in a sealed bottle in your refrigerator. Equal parts sugar and water; heated until the sugar is completely dissolved.

Measure out the gin, lemon juice and simple syrup and shake with ice. Pour each serving into a champagne flute and fill to the top with sparkling wine. Garnish with a piece of lemon peel.

Enjoy! (Makes 4 or so drinks)