This is an aperitif made with fresh fruit and sparkling wine.

For each glass, 1/3 juice of mandarin orange (ripe, fragrant, in season) and 2/3 sparkling wine (dry, good quality).

Squeeze the mandarins and filter the juice through a sieve. Pour it into the glasses and then top them up with well chilled sparkling wine. A little-known, aristocratic cocktail – a favourite of fashionable ladies of all ages – that combines the fruit’s fragrant, citrusy sweetness with the dry bubbles of the sparkling wine. Some are scandalized by the disrespect towards the fine bubbles and the subtle, complex aromas of the sparkling wine, but..... try tasting it: noblesse oblige!