Bellini cocktail

The bellini was invented in 1948 by Giuseppe Cipriani, the founder of Harry's Bar in Venice. The house of Cipriani itself says so. He puréed small white peaches and topped them up with prosecco.

The name refers to the fifteenth-century Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini. According to Cipriani, peaches were plentiful in Italy from June through September, and Giuseppe Cipriani preferred the white variety. The cocktail then became a fixture of Harry's Bar and of the Cipriani restaurants elsewhere in the world. The International Bartenders Association counts it among the Contemporary Classics.

For a bellini you use prosecco, the Italian sparkling wine from the original recipe. Both Cipriani and the IBA name prosecco as the only wine in the cocktail.

According to the Consorzio Prosecco DOC, Prosecco DOC is made in nine provinces, including Treviso, Venice and Udine, mainly from the glera grape. The spumante comes in different levels of sweetness. A brut has less than 12 grams of residual sugar per litre, an extra dry between 12 and 17 grams. Both levels of sweetness suit the recipe; the IBA and Cipriani prescribe no particular style. Use a sparkling prosecco and not a frizzante or still version.

The best-known variants follow the same pattern of fruit with prosecco, only with a different fruit. The IBA lists three on the bellini page.

For the Rossini you replace the peach purée with fresh strawberry purée. You make the Puccini with freshly squeezed mandarin juice. The Tintoretto gets fresh pomegranate juice. The proportions and preparation stay the same: one part fruit, two parts prosecco, gently stirred and poured into a chilled flute. That way, with the same bottle of prosecco, you can choose a seasonal fruit all year round.

You make an alcohol-free bellini with the same white peach purée, but instead of prosecco you top up with alcohol-free sparkling wine or sparkling water. The ratio stays one part purée to two parts bubbles.

Put 50 ml white peach purée with ice in a mixing glass and add 100 ml alcohol-free sparkling wine. Stir briefly and gently, so that as much carbonation as possible is kept, and strain into a chilled flute. Use cold purée and well-chilled bubbles, so that you need less ice. The preparation is otherwise exactly the same as the regular version.

The shop has 15 proseccos, from brut to extra dry. Examples are Bellussi Prosecco Brut DOC, Bellussi Prosecco Superiore Valdobbiadene DOCG, Bottega Vino Dei Poeti Prosecco and Costaross Prosecco.

If you are looking for an extra dry, you can choose from Farina Prosecco Spumante Extra Dry, among others. There are also Freixenet Prosecco DOC and Martini Prosecco. You bring the white peach purée and ice; you will find the prosecco with us. Not sure which bottle suits your bellini? Call us or drop by ’t Bockje at Brink 2 in Bathmen.

The shop is at Brink 2 in Bathmen. Open Tuesday to Friday from 09.00 to 18.00 and Saturday from 09.00 to 17.00. For advice, call 0570 541 278 or email info@bockje.nl.