Try Merlot In Your Next Mojito For A Fruitier Finish

Few cocktails are more refreshing than the iconic mojito, with sweet rum balanced by crisply effervescent soda water, tart lime juice, and herbaceous mint. The simplicity of a classic mojito is exciting, too — it's an already-perfect foundation that can be built upon with various ingredients for different flavors. This is a great way to take the mojito, often associated with hot weather, into different seasons. A delicious approach to making the mojito just as delectable in cooler months is to add depth and complexity — while introducing a fruity kick — with merlot. 

If you think combining wine and the mojito sounds jarring, consider how different types of wine offer entire bouquets of fruit, botanical, spice, and herb flavors that play well with acidic lime, earthy mint, and refreshing carbonation. A mojito swapping rum out for rosé, for example, is a treat; these wine switches make mojitos an option for those who don't like rum. Merlot works with the mojito's elements because it's juicy, softer, and smoother than many other wines. It has a lower acidity compared to other varietals, so it's a more rounded complement to lime. Pinot noir and Sangiovese wines, by contrast, are more acidic with a sharper taste that may be too intense with that citrus. Merlot can have notes of spices and herbs, a match for the mint, plus plum, blackberry, and dark cherry. The end product is jammy and dark-fruity, brightened by lime, zipped up with mint, and crisped with soda water.

To make a merlot mojito, reference our recipe for a classic mojito and the rosé mojito for proportion guidance. Muddle ½ of a lime cut into wedges in a cocktail shaker, soon adding in the mint to muddle, too, along with simple syrup. A standard recipe calls for about ¾ of an ounce of syrup; you may wish to cut that down a bit because merlot's fruit notes bring some of their own sweetness. Pour in ½ of a cup of merlot, add ice, and shake. Strain the mixture into a tall glass over fresh ice, top with soda water to taste, and garnish with a lime slice and more mint. 

You can also experiment with incorporating different flavors or amplifying certain ones by making an elevated simple syrup. To highlight the merlot, add blackberries or cherries to the syrup, or bring out its subtler floral notes with rose or hibiscus. These will also work well with the mojito's lime and mint. As an alternative to the syrup, you can muddle in actual fruit or a fruit jam. Those blackberries and cherries are a go-to, as are their jam iterations, but you can think about complementary fruits, too. Plums would be in line with merlot's profile, while blueberries would emphasize both tartness and sweetness in the drink, and cranberries would add a pop of tart bitterness. You could lean more herbaceous and earthy, too, by muddling in rosemary or sage.