Sangria? Heard of this stuff?

Dear sirs:

This morning on talk radio I heard a recipe for a drink called "Sangria". It sounds quite obscure and I am pretty sure most of you are unfamiliar with it. Apparently it consists of the following ingredients and may be doubled:

• One 750ml bottle of dry red wine (they said a red "rioja" for purists, whatever rioja is)
• Two ounces grape brandy
• One ounce lemon juice
• Sliced fruits soaked in the mixture to add flavour

So I decided to give it a go. The local wine cellar I buy from had never heard of "rioja" and I suspect that the talk radio host was a little bit clueless. Being pretty skeptical about this recipe at first I bought an average Opus One 1997 to use for it and had some Rémy Martin XO cognac at home already, so that saved me some hassle going to the liquor store. I decided to have some authentic Curaçao oranges and lemons shipped via FedEx next-day from the island of Jamaica. I must say, I put this whole concoction together and it is quite fantastic. I doubled the recipe for a party last week and it turned out great. Thought I'd share the love!

-Horst

PS (My eight year old son even loves it!)