In the mid-1970s, Matt and Sue Donavin were living in Spain with their daughter, Kathleen, courtesy of the Air Force.

	Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Jimmy Angeleri, bartender at Tasca Navarre, pours sangria into an antique cup from the Botin restaurant in Madrid. Click photo for larger image.

In Madrid the Donavins discovered Botin, a neighborhood restaurant opened in 1725 and considered by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest restaurant in the world.

While the charm of the establishment drew them in, it was the sangria that kept them going back. Before they left the country, they convinced the owners to write down the instructions for the ages-old recipe, so they could make sangria at home.

"The owner gave it to them," Kathleen said. "I think the only reason was because he knew they were Americans and were leaving Spain."

Sangria, for the uninitiated, is a traditional Spanish combination of wine, fruit and liquor (usually brandy) said to have been popularized in the United States following the 1964 World's Fair.

Around the same time the Donavin family was overseas, Stephen E. Smith was growing up in Penn Hills and learning to cook.

"My mother died when I was 12. You want to eat, you got to cook," said Smith, now 40. "Then in my 20s, I learned chicks dig a guy who can cook."

By his 30s, Smith could wield a mean skillet. He met and married Kathleen, whom he credits with broadening his culinary horizons and introducing him to ethnic food and drink he had never tried, including the sangria made from Botin's recipe.

"I never had a Spanish sangria until I met my wife," Smith said.

Smith was so enamored by the drink, it made sense to use the recipe when he decided to turn his passion for cooking into a business. In December, he opened Tasca Navarre, a tapas bar and restaurant in the Strip District.

Along with bartender Jimmy Angeleri, who has poured drinks around the world, Smith worked several weeks from a faxed copy of the original recipe Kathleen's parents sent from Florida, perfecting the measurements required for large batches of sangria. Kathleen and her parents, who later flew up for a visit, were the official tasters.

"We didn't change ingredients. We changed amounts. It took me a while to get it right," Angeleri said. "Now, I can do it in my sleep. It's pretty consistent."

Smith and Angeleri are mum about their Botin-inspired recipe except to say it includes red wine, sugar, triple sec and brandy. Oranges, limes and lemons provide the garnish; 7-Up or soda, the topper.

They've also created two other summer drinks: white summer sangria made with dry white wine, fruit juice and two kinds of rum, garnished with peaches and a splash of 7-Up; and Toro, a sangria martini.

Smith said the restaurant is selling upward of 20 gallons of sangria a week and it accounts for 50 percent of the alcohol sales. Carafes are $19; half-carafes, $14; and 16-ounce glasses, $6.

"We make it every single day. We mix gallons and gallons of it. One Saturday night, we had a table [of customers] who had seven carafes," Smith said. "Granted, there were six people, but still, that's a lot of sangria."

Smith figures it's popular for a number of reasons.

"It's refreshing. It's not as heavy as wine. It's like a wine cocktail."

Tasca Navarre, 2623 Penn Ave., is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.

Making sangria

The beauty of sangria is there is no single recipe, so with some basic ingredients -- wine, fruit, brandy -- you can experiment until you get a mix you like. Just remember, traditional Spanish sangria is not overly sweet. Here is a recipe and a variation to get you started.

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Sangria

• 1 750 ml bottle of dry red wine
  
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges
  
• 1 orange, cut into wedges
  
• 2 tablespoons sugar
  
• 1 shot brandy
  
• 2 cups ginger ale, 7-Up or club soda

Pour the wine, fruit, sugar and brandy into a ceramic or glass pitcher, stir and chill overnight. Before serving, add the soda. Pour over ice. Garnish with a fruit wedge. Note: You can add any fruit you like or throw in a shot or two of triple sec. If you don't have time to prepare the drink ahead of time, mix up a pitcher quickly using wine that's already been chilled.

If you want to try white sangria (or sangria blanco), substitute a dry white wine and uses peaches and/or nectarines instead of lemon and orange and eliminate the sugar.