Sangria is one of my most favourite alcoholic beverages - the others being a good stout beer and Irish whiskey, the two of which can be combined into an "Irish Car Bomb" by dropping a shot glass of whiskey into a glass of stout, usually Guiness, and then drinking rapidly ... it's well-named, but I digress.

Sangria (from the Spanish sangre, meaning blood) is best made with red wine, although using white wine will give you more creativity with colouring (and is known as sangria blanco - or is it blanca?). As with anything, the better the ingredients, the better the end result (artificial vanilla flavouring notwithstanding - except in the most light and delicate dishes, you're not going to notice a flavour difference between the artificial and the real extract, which is exorbitantly priced, but I digress again), so get something good. Doesn't have to be fifty years old, but should taste nice with no bad aftertaste. Dry is okay (I love dry wines), the other ingredients will lend a fruitier taste to the drink.

I'm very vague with ingredients, but sangria is the vaguest of all, and it's not my fault this time. You will need: red wine, unchilled fruit juice, fresh fruit of the same sort as the juice and a little bit of sugar (no more than two or three tablespoons, depending on how much you're making).

Mix all the ingredients into a pitcher. Stir well to dissolve the sugar and ensure the liquids are well-blended, and chill in the refrigerator for at least six to eight hours, preferably overnight if possible. This will let the flavours blend together, and chill it quite well. Add ice to the pitcher, and serve.

That's a very, very, very simple recipe. There are others, oh yes: sangria is a very versatile drink. The fruit juice alone can make quite a few different flavours - citrus, like oranges, lemons and limes tends to produce the best flavour, I think; orange is my favourite. Some people like to add soda water, ginger ale or sometimes Sprite or Seven-Up to make it fizzier and sweeter; I don't like it that way, but I don't drink soda till it's mostly flat, so take that as you will. You can also add more alcohol to the drink, either a liquor or a liqueur. Brandy is the traditional addition for liquor; white rum or vodka also go well. You can also use a flavoured liquor (like peach or cherry brandy) to match the fruit juice. The liqueur depends on what sort of juice you're adding to the wine.

If you can't find fresh fruit juice for the sort of sangria you want to make, or it would be impractical to make (such as strawberries, cherries or kiwis), frozen concentrate juice will work. If you use one of those, don't add any extra sugar - those frozen concentrates are loaded with it. Also, regarding juice - pulp is good.

And of course you can add more than one fruit. Basic rule of thumb: if you'd eat them together in a fruit salad, they'd go well in sangria. I can't think of anything that wouldn't go well together in sangria, unless you were going to add grapes. That'd be like adding apple rings to apple juice.