The Dirty Julius - A Sparkling Wine Cocktail with Orange Juice and Cream

A sweet, creamy and delicious wine cocktail that reminds you of an Orange Julius.  However the addition of sparkling wine and vodka make it a little “dirty,” but fun!

Background 
The idea of our cocktail, the Dirty Julius, started with just figuring out what wine we were going to mix with. For both of us, it was an easy pick since our favorite wine to drink both plain and mixed was champagne. We loved mimosas and wanted to make a mimosa that could be even better than the original.

It started with a simple mixture of the original mimosa, orange juice and champagne, but with an added twist of whipped pinnacle vodka. It tasted good, kind of like a sweet, alcoholic orange creamsicle.  Next we decided to try and mix our drink with higher end ingredients and the best resource we had was the full bar at the restaurant we worked at. It was a great idea since we not only had more options of alcohol to choose from but also the bartending tools that were made for mixing drinks.

We only had one problem when we got there; there wasn’t any whipped vodka to be found. So we had to improvise. We substituted the whipped vodka out for a shot of plain vodka simply mixed with some whipped cream. The drink turned out to be better than what we expected, it was not only sweet but also creamy and delicious.   Thus the Dirty Julius was born.

Recipe 
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 ½ shots of vodka
¼ cup of whipped cream
4oz of orange juice
Top off drink with champagne

Directions
Start out with a glass bucket, coat the rim with orange juice that is poured onto a small saucer, then coat the rim with the 1 tablespoon of sugar that is spread out on another saucer. Use an 8oz glass cup and pour the 1 ½ shots of vodka along with the ¼ cup of whipped cream in the cup. Use a mixing spoon and mix the vodka and whipped cream together well, then add ice and pour the 4oz of orange juice into the mixture, cover with a shaker cup and shake well. Strain the mixture over ice into the bucket, top the drink off with the champagne, mix with a straw, and garnish with a blood orange slice on the rim.

Excerpted with permission from:

WINE MIXOLOGY - Tantalizing Wine Cocktails From Around the World

Dr. Liz Thach MW, Professor of Management and Wine Business, Sonoma State University

Contributed by A. DiMichele & B. Charmasson