Angostura Bitters

Angostura Bitters is a concentrated bitters based on gentian, herbs and spices, from the House of Angostura in Trinadad and Tobago. Note that the Angostura Bitters from the House of Angostura do not contain Angostura bark.
However, Angostura Bitters or Angobitter offered by other brands like Riemerschmid and Hemmeler, contain angostura bark, possibly to justify using the word "Angostura" in their names.

Dubonnet Rouge Aperitif Wine

Dubonnet is the Grand Aperitif de France, it is a sweet, aromatic wine based aperitif. It has a wonderful history, and it was in 1846, Joseph Dubonnet created Dubonnet, in response to a competition called by the French Government to find a solution to the problem of it's inability to persuade the French Foreign Legionnaires in North Africa to drink Quinine, the only medicine for Malaria.

Dubonnet is available in Rouge, Blanc and Gold. Dubonnet is known to be the favourite beverage of Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Elizabeth II and Nelson Rockefeller.

The main ingredients of Dubonnet are a Red Wine base with a distinct base of Ruby Red, Ruby Cabernet and Muscat of Alexander, Herbs and spices including blackcurrant, essence of tea and others. Cinchona bark, the original medicinal ingredient derived from the bark of the cinchona tree and cane sugar.

Note that a historical equivalent of Dubonnet is Gin and Tonic, Tonic Water was invented to make European Soldiers in South Asia drink the quinine tonic.

Important Note , Dubonnet is Vermouth, although Vermouth is a fortified aromatised wine, but unlike Vermouth it's primary ingredient was never Wormwood, so Dubonnet is not a Vermouth, although both are very similar and are interchangeable.

Sugar

Brown Sugar is a sucrose sugar with a distinctive brown colour from the presence of molasses, it is a partially refined or unrefined sugar containing sugar crystals and residual molasses giving it a distinctive taste and flavour of crystallised molasses or toffee. The taste of dark brown sugar is described as a caramel taste with a deep molasses flavour.
Brown sugar is used in cocktails where a caramel candy or toffee flavour is expected.

Caster Sugar is finely ground granulated sugar. It is not as fine a powdered confectioners' sugar and has a little grit to it. It is somewhere between confectioners' sugar and granulated sugar, and melts in mouth with a mild spicy feel to the tongue

Vanilla Sugar is the regular granulated sugar infused with vanilla flavour, by using vanilla pods and seeds to flavour the sugar. A home made alternative is to use vanilla sticks or pods in a jar of sugar and leave it sealed for 4 weeks to allow the vanilla flavour to infuse. Or to use granulated sugar and vanilla extract and blend in a mixer, although this ends up in powdered sugar.

Champagne Iced top up

Champagne is a sparkling wine produced in the Champagne region of France. Modern champagne is guided by the rules of appellation, which is a legally defined and protected geographical indication primarily used to identify where the grapes for a wine were grown. The grapes Pinot noir, Pinot meunier and Charodonnay are used to produce champagne.

Much ahead of the creation of the sparkling wine, still wines from the Champagne region were known since Medieval France. The Romans established vineyards in the Champagne region and these vineyards started to produce a light, fruity red wine that was a contrast to the heavier Italian brews.

Later Church owned vineyards started producing wines for ceremonies and festivities like the coronation, but the wine makers of Champagne were envious of the reputation of their neighbouring Burgundy wine makers, but the cooler climate of Champagne was a challenge to the production of red wine, and the grapes would struggle to ripen fully, and would have bracing levels of acidity and low sugar level, that would result in lighter and thinner red wines.

The oldest record of sparkling wine is Blanquette de Limoux, a wine invented by Benedictine monks in the Abbey of Saint-Hilaire, near Carcassone. Sparkling wine is created by bottling the wine before the fermentation has ended and another method is by addition of sugar and yeast to trigger a second fermentation in a finished wine.

However, despite the accidental invention of sparkling wine in France outside the Abbey, and despite recording of the in bottle second fermentation process of a finished wine been recorded in the Abbey of Saint-Hilaire by English scientist Christopher Merret in 1662 and noted as a process in use by the Benedictine monks since 1531, wine makers in Champagne were unable to use what is now known as the méthode traditionnelle or particularly méthode champenoise in Champagne until the 17th Century.

This was because glass manufacturing in France was not advanced enough to manufacture bottles that could withstand the internal pressure of the carbonation process. They used Méthode rurale, the early method used by the monks that created Blanquette de Limoux, in which the wine is bottled before the first fermentation is finished, and the yeast sediment after fermentation remains in the bottle.

The méthode champenoise which alternatively is known as méthode traditionnelle outside Champagne uses a second fermentation by adding a little sugar and yeast and then the sediment is slowly removed after an elaborate process of riddling and then disgorging, a process of removing the lees, the sediment that has settled at the neck near the cap of the inverted bottle.

So, in short, sparkling wines are produced outside Champagne too, and like Limoux can be of exquisite quality, but the Champagne due to early clever marketing, became associated with royalty in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries and thus became a popular drink for the middle class too. Which created the legend of Champagne and now, with successful Geographical Indication Appellate, Champagne as a name and the name méthode champenoise can only be used by Champagnes that meet the requirement of the Appellate, and are from Champagne and Champagne only.