Spritzer In some places it is said that wine spritzers make poets sing and nations come together. The word comes from the German "spritzen" "spatter, squirt, spray, sprinkle", i.e. adding water and thus diluting the wine so that it can be consumed in larger, thirst-quenching amounts. Alcoholic spritzers are increasingly available ready-mixed in cans; their relatively low alcohol and calorific content means they are often marketed at women. In Hesse, "gespritzt" usually refers to a mixture of soda water or lemonade and "Apfelwein" (in Central Hessian dialect, "Ebblwoi"), an alcoholic drink from fermented apple juice somewhat similar to dry hard cider.
Wine cocktail Wine cocktail A wine cocktail is a mixed drink, similar to a true cocktail. It is made predominantly with wine (including Champagne and Prosecco), into which distilled alcohol or other drink mixer is combined. The distinction between a "wine cocktail" and a "cocktail with wine" is the relative amounts of the various alcohols. In a wine cocktail, the wine product is the primary alcohol by volume compared to the distilled alcohol or mixer. The following drinks are not technically cocktails unless wine is secondary by volume to a distilled beverage, since wine is a fermented beverage not a distilled one.