The Calimotxo or Kalimotxo is a mixture of red wine and cola in equal parts, usually served over ice. It is believed to have originated in Spain’s Basque Country, where it is immensely popular. Although it is likely that Spaniards had already been mixing cola and wine for decades (since the 1920s at least), according to Jonathan Miles, writing in the New York Times in 2007, “The drink was supposedly created—or at least named—at a festival in Algorta, Spain, in 1972, when some young entrepreneurs discovered that the wine they had planned to sell tasted not just bad but toxic, and added Coca-Cola and ice to mask the flavor.”
Franck Celhay elaborates on the story, citing La verdadera historia del kalimotxo (The true story of the Kalimotxo), edited by the not very authoritative-sounding Bilbao artists’ collective Funky Project. But since bilbotarras are serious about the Calimotxo, let us take Funky Project at their word when they explain that the inventors of the Calimotxo that fateful day at the festival were members of a group called Antzarrak, and that the drink was initially called “Rioja Libre” or “Cuba Libre del Pobre” (poor man’s Cuba libre), but was christened “Kalimotxo” by combining the nicknames of two members of the gang: “Kalimero” and “Motxo” (others say that it was Kalimero alone responsible, and that the name came about from another of his nicknames, “Motz,” Basque for “short” or “stumpy”). In any case, the name stuck. Variations on this origin story are in circulation, but Funky Project’s version is considered the most reliable.
The drink’s taste has been likened to sangria, and it’s the favored cheap buzz of young people in the Basque Country, who sometimes mix it in great quantity in plastic shopping bags. But the appeal of this plonk-and-coke combo is widespread, if not universal: in many former Yugoslav republics it’s “bambus.” Chileans call it “jota,” Hungarians “vadász.” And Romanians know it as motorină—“diesel fuel.”
Recipe: Pour equal parts red wine and Coca-Cola into a tall, ice-filled glass. Stir.
Miles, Jonathan. “If Bacchus Drank Cola.” New York Times, December 2, 2007.
Celhay, Franck. “Le kalimotxo: cocktail hérétique ou nouvelle opportunité pour la filière vin?” Décisions marketing, October-December 2008, 67–71.
By: Rosie Schaap