I used to hate sangria. It took nearly 30 years, but I finally found the sangria I want to share my hot summer nights with. To think I owe it all to my persistent mother.
I used to think sangria was a drink for toga-clad college students and people who think wine coolers are too dry. For me, sangria was like Hawaiian Punch for adults.
Thanks to my mother and a super-secret recipe, I have now seen the blood-red light.
Twenty years ago, my mother told me about this fantastic sangria she discovered at Cafe Azul in the Pearl District. I was skeptical, but since I was living 2,000 miles away at the time, I told her I would just have to take her word. My mother enjoys a good challenge, so she said she would get the recipe for me.
My mother went to Cafe Azul almost every week to convince the nice lady behind the bar to hand over her sangria recipe. Every week Nancy Hunt politely declined.
One night my parents walked in on Cafe Azul’s closing night staff party. Hunt walked over and handed my mother a piece of paper. It was the elusive sangria recipe. My mother mailed it to me, and I promptly filed it away and forgot all about it.
By 2008 I was living in Portland again. I walked into a new restaurant called Bar Avignon, where I was thrilled to see Randy Goodman standing behind the bar. I first met Goodman when he worked at Wildwood in Northwest Portland. Standing next to Goodman was his partner in life and everything else, Nancy Hunt. When she heard my last name, she asked if I was Barbara Alberty’s son. I pleaded guilty.
A few days later, Goodman emailed to find out if I still had the sangria recipe. It turns out they lost track of it during one of their many moves. Fortunately, I had not tossed it in the trash like all the red Solo cups filled with sangria I had been offered in my lifetime.
When I finally got around to ordering a glass of sangria at Bar Avignon, I told Goodman I had yet to find a sangria I liked. As Goodman walked away from our table, he said, “If you don’t love this one, you can stop looking.”
After one sip, I was convinced. This sangria was light on its feet and refreshing. It wasn’t cloyingly sweet, and I could actually tell there was red wine in my glass. The frustrating part was I promised Goodman I wouldn’t share the recipe.
Goodman died in 2018, and Hunt closed Bar Avignon at the end of 2019. I recently called her, seeking permission to publish the recipe. I’m happy to report Hunt, now enthusiastically retired from the service industry, gave her blessing
Hunt says the recipe was given to her by a chef de cuisine at Cafe Azul, whose name she can’t remember. It uses red wine for the base and eschews spirits like brandy or rum.
“The recipe is simple, but I never played with it by adding spices or anything else. I like it just the way it is,” Hunt said.
The key is using a fruity red wine that you don’t mind sipping while you make the sangria. At Bar Avignon, Hunt used the Portuguese red blend Terra da Malta Tinto. I like to use Protocolo Tinto, a Spanish red made by the Eguren family. The Protocolo is a solid bottle of wine you can find around Portland for less than 10 dollars.
This is the recipe that quenched the thirst of thousands for more than two decades at Cafe Azul and Bar Avignon. It will fuel a large party and likely convert any sangria naysayers.
Recipe included with this story: Café Azul’s and Bar Avignon’s Secret Sangria.
When serving, please consider making a toast to Nancy Hunt and the memories of Randy Goodman and Bar Avignon.
-- Michael Alberty writes about wine for The Oregonian/OregonLive. He can be reached at malberty0@gmail.com. To read more of his coverage, go to oregonlive.com/wine.
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