Mountaintop Meadow

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Cocktail History

The Mountaintop Meadow is a Sips From Scripts original cocktail that we created for Secret Santé, a Christmas cocktail challenge hosted by Served by Soberon during which Instagram users are invited to make up a drink for a fellow cocktail enthusiast.

Instead of going the Christmas cocktail route, we decided to take inspiration directly from our Secret Santé’s posts, many of which feature photos of summer cocktails and scaling mountainsides. In homage to his two hobbies, we made this drink that uses a refreshing mix of vodka, bubbly, fruit, and floral flavors that together taste like the moment you first smell a beautiful mountaintop wildflower field just after climbing up a cliff on a warm summer day.

Cocktail Ingredients

To make this cocktail, you’ll need the following ingredients:

Vodka: This is one of the base spirits. We used Russian Standard Gold Vodka because it’s smooth, easy to sip, and fairly inexpensive without compromising the quality.

Sparkling Wine: This is the other base spirit. It’s poured on top at the end to make the drink boozier and add bubbly’s sparkling wine flavor and effervescence. We prefer Villa Bellezza Winery’s Brillante because it was our wedding wine and we love its light and airy taste.

Elderflower Liqueur: This is a liqueur that adds a distinct elderflower taste. We used Edinburgh Gin Distillery Elderflower Gin Liqueur because it’s high quality and has a fresh, floral aroma and taste.

Simple Syrup: This is a sweetener made with sugar and water. You can buy bottled simple syrup in a store, but we made ours at home using Alex’s recipe because it tastes better fresh and is very easy to make.

Lavender Bitters: These add a bit more spice and floral flavor. We used Scrappy’s Bitters Lavender Bitters because they’re high quality.

Pineapple Wedge: This is one of the garnishes. It adds fresh pineapple aroma and flavor.

Mint Sprig: This is the other garnish. It adds fresh mint aroma and flavor.

Tasting Notes

The Mountaintop Meadow features delightful floral, mint, and pineapple aromas and the taste of dry wine with notes of lavender and elderflower.

Our Opinion of This Cocktail Recipe: We both really enjoyed this drink! It’s refreshing, light and delicious, and it would be a fabulous reward after a long climb. Just a warning: Although almost colorless and light, this cocktail is as dangerous as mountain climbing. We recommend waiting at least an hour or more before attempting to descend any cliffs if you do enjoy this in a meadow.

Recipe

Tools & Glassware We Recommend

More Sparkling Wine Cocktails

If you like this sparkling wine-based cocktail recipe, here are a few others we’ve tried that you may enjoy:

• Nucleus Mimosa: A sparkling wine cocktail made with orange juice, cranberry juice, and a lime slice

• Minute To Midnight: A brandy cocktail made with pear liqueur, Angostura aromatic bitters, dry sparkling wine, and a lemon twist

• Pomegranate Gin Fizz: A gin cocktail made with grenadine, sparkling wine, pomegranate seeds, and a Demerara sugar cube

• British 75: A gin cocktail made with lemon juice, simple syrup, sparkling wine, and a lemon wedge