Sangria appeared about four hundred years ago in southern Spain. Fruit pickers, in order to somehow escape from the heat, carried a wineskin with red wine diluted with spring water. The juice of fresh oranges, harvested directly from the plantations on which the peasants worked, was squeezed into the same wineskin. This mixture made it easier to work under the sun, and refreshed, without leading to severe intoxication, especially unpleasant in extreme heat. Over time, other fruits began to be added to sangria, and after several years of experimentation, the recipe for a wonderful cocktail was finally formed.
There is no consensus on why the drink came to be called “sangria”. According to one legend, the drink got its name as a result of the tragic events in the Spanish wine-producing province of Rioja, which occurred in the late 17th century. A series of unlucky years passed in Spain when the peasants could not harvest a good crop. Large landowners, furious that the next harvest again did not live up to expectations, gathered a well-armed army and carried out a large-scale punitive operation, cursing everything not from rainy and cold weather, but from lazy peasants.
As a result, hundreds of people died, including women and children. Perhaps the enraged nobles would have exterminated all the inhabitants of the province, but they presented them with a gift of a drink that the grandees had never tasted before. It was a punch made from red wine, fruit, and sugar. Shocked by his taste, the feudal lords calmed down and demanded to disclose the recipe, and the inhabitants of Rioja in memory of the bloody tragedy in Rioja began to call their drink "sangria" (from the Spanish "sangre" - blood).
According to another legend that exists in Italy, the Spanish peasants and landowners actually have nothing to do with the invention of sangria (however, it would be surprising if the cunning Italians did not take the palm in the invention of this wonderful drink).
According to the Italian version, the author of this drink was allegedly an Italian soldier Helio Gabal, who was an outstanding agronomist before he was called up for military service. For reasons only known to him, Gabal arrived in Spain and was immediately captured by the local Algvasil (state guards, who, in particular, served as secret police in medieval Spain). The captive was tortured for a long time, considering him a foreign spy. However, the involvement of the unfortunate soldier in espionage did not find confirmation, and Gabala was released. Once free, the stubborn Italian soldier set about why he actually arrived in Spain - he began to study the local varieties of oranges.
Having made friends with local farmers, Gabal told them that he had long dreamed of creating citrus wine. In his homeland, he spent several years on this, but without result. Knowing that the best oranges grow in Spain, he came to sunny Castile to try his luck again, but was captured by the Algvasil and thrown into prison. Friendly farmers brought Gabala to the best Spanish winemakers, who enthusiastically began to implement the idea of an Italian soldier. For several months they struggled over a difficult task, but they were able to make wine from oranges.
One evening, the annoyed Gabal, realizing that he did not succeed, threw several coarsely chopped oranges in a jug of grape wine with grief, saying that, despite the setbacks, he would drink only citrus wine. At the same time, he threw several pieces of ice into the jug, because he loved only well-chilled orange juice. The amazed Spaniards watched, fascinated, as the Italian stirs the crimson drink. After trying it, they exclaimed "Es Sangre del Diablo!" ("This is the blood of the devil!"). Gabal was declared a heretic and accomplice of Satan, and repeatedly tortured.
Only this time it was not the Algvasils who were engaged in it, but the inquisitors, because the matter took a tragic turn for the unfortunate Gabala. It was burned at the stake, and the name "sangria" was attached to the drink he had invented. Only a few years later, the Inquisition lifted the ban and allowed to prepare sangria. Since then it is the most popular alcoholic cocktail in Spain.
In Italy, at the beginning of the last century, it also became fashionable to mix sparkling wines with fruit juices and spices, sparkling sangria was obtained, which had a more fresh taste and a delicate fruity-floral aroma. But outside southern Europe, almost nothing was known about sangria.
Sangria received true world recognition only in the sixties and seventies of the last century. The ancient drink came to all the bars and restaurants of the world to the sounds of rock and roll, amid the global confrontation of superpowers, the movement of the pacifists and the first cosmic victories of mankind.