white wine punch

2 oz White Wine (Cantarutti Ribolla Gialla)
1 oz Arrack (Batavia Arrack van Oosten)
1 tsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Simple Syrup

Shake with ice and strain into a highball glass filled with ice cubes. Fill with soda water, and decorate with a slice of pineapple an a slice of orange (orange slices and a Luxardo Maraschino cherry). Serve with straws.

On Friday night, Andrea had opened a bottle of wine to go with dinner. Later, to use the remainder of the bottle, I found a recipe in our 1947 edition of Trader Vic for White Wine Punch which seemed alluring due to its inclusion of Batavia Arrack. Being frugal with the glassware, I used the wine glasses already on the table instead of fetching the proper highball glasses. The result ended up being a little stronger than the recipe intended.
White wine flavors were on the front of the sip with lemon and arrack on the swallow. The drink was rather crisp from the lemon coupled with the soda water, and it had a pleasant degree of sharp funkiness from the Batavia Arrack. Overall, it was a refreshing drink that would have been more refreshing had I made a tall drink out of it. However, the recipe seemed like it was missing something. The drink would definitely benefit from a barspoon or two of liqueur; perhaps some Maraschino, Cointreau, or St. Germain might elevate this punch to something rather elegant and noteworthy. Although I could see this recipe sans liqueur working quite well in much warmer weather.