Clericó is a summer drink with an English accent. Its name is a River Plate rendering of claret cup, the wine and fruit punch the British were fond of in the nineteenth century, which arrived in Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay with British immigrants and stayed long after most of England had forgotten it. Somewhere along the way the red Bordeaux gave way to cheaper, lighter white wine, and the fruit became the main event. In Uruguay it is poured from a big jug at Christmas and New Year, which fall at the height of the southern summer, and at long, hot family lunches around the asado.

There is no fixed recipe, only a principle: whatever fruit is ripe, cut small, sweetened, soaked and then drowned in cold white wine. The fruit drinks in the wine as the wine drinks in the fruit, and the last of it is fished out of the glass with a spoon, which many people consider the best part. It is an easy, generous jug for a race afternoon in warm weather, and a fitting toast for the last race of the season, which tends to come round just as Uruguay starts mixing its first jugs of summer.

The fruit

Ingredients

• 2 oranges
• 1 crisp red apple
• 1 ripe pear
• 2 ripe peaches or nectarines
• 1 1/2 cups (225 g) strawberries
• 1 banana
• 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) brandy or white rum

Method

1. Wash all the fruit. Peel one orange with a knife, cutting away all the bitter white pith, then dice the flesh. Juice the second orange. Core and dice the apple and pear, pit and dice the peaches, and quarter the strawberries. Leave the banana whole for now; it turns brown and mushy if cut too early.
2. Put all the diced fruit in the jug, sprinkle over the sugar and pour in the orange juice and the brandy or rum if using. Stir gently, cover and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes, stirring once halfway.

The jug

Ingredients

• 2 bottles (750 ml each) dry white wine
• 2 cups (480 ml) lemon lime soda or sparkling water
• a few sprigs fresh mint
• to serve ice cubes

Method

1. Pour the chilled wine over the fruit, stir gently with the long spoon, add the mint and cover. Return the jug to the fridge for at least 1 1/2 hours and up to 6 hours.
2. Just before serving, slice the banana into the jug, if using, and add the soda or sparkling water. Stir once and taste; add a spoonful of sugar if the wine is sharp.
3. Put two or three ice cubes in each tall glass, then pour or ladle in the clericó, making sure everyone gets a good spoonful of fruit. Hand out small spoons with the glasses.

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