When Spruce Met Bellini: A Venetian Love Story

It was our first exhilarating night in Venice, Italy and we had just returned from a magical gondola ride back to the Hotel Danieli. My good friend and her exceptionally generous family, with whom I was lucky enough to be traveling, decided to dine at the hotel’s restaurant before retiring to our rooms for the evening. Upon arriving at the Terrazza Danieli, we were immediately seated and handed one fizzy pink cocktail each. We were told that this cocktail was called a “Bellini,” in honor of the Italian artist Giovanni Bellini, and that it was a beloved Venetian specialty. I took one sip of this sweet drink and fell helplessly in love. Magic seemed to follow me that evening, as the others at our table opted not to drink their bubbling flutes of heaven, so I took matters into my own hands and one-by-one drank nearly all of the Bellinis myself. (Terrazza Danieli at Hotel Danieli)

BELLINI
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Pour fresh peach purée into half of a chilled flute and then add chilled sparkling wine or chilled dry Champagne to fill the flute. Stir gently. Garnish with slice of peach.

Some high-end liquor stores even sell a bottled version of the Bellini.

(My friends and I literally depleted Partridges' entire stock of Bellini bottles over a four-month period)

The traditional Bellini cocktail consists of puréed white peaches and Prosecco, an Italian sparkling wine. The original recipe was made with a little bit of cherry or raspberry juice to give the drink its signature pink glow. Because both white peaches and Prosecco were not always easily available, many variations of the traditional Bellini exist. Other sparkling wines are commonly used in place of Prosecco. Richly flavored French Champagne does not pair well with the light, fruit flavor of the Bellini. Yellow peaches or peach nectar are often substituted. Other fruits or even flavored liquors, such as peach schnapps (a personal favorite), are sometimes substituted for the peach purée.

The Bellini was invented in the 1940’s by Guiseppe Cipriani, the founder of Harry’s Bar in Venice, a popular haunt frequented by Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis and Orson Welles. Cipriani noted the cocktail’s unique pink color, and this reminded him of the glowing pinks he had seen in paintings by 15th-century Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini.  Here are a few of Bellini's more famous paintings.  See if you can spot the colors that might have inspired Cipriani.

The Bellini cocktail started as a seasonal specialty at Harry’s Bar, but it became so popular at the bar’s New York counterpart that a wise Frenchman set up a business to ship fresh white peach purée to both locations and soon became very successful, as the drink turned into a year-round favorite.

Falling in love with the Bellini cocktail can be both a blessing and a curse. It is a blessing because it is light, delicious, has a lovely history, and is often sipped by those “in-the-know;” but it can be a curse because many restaurants, especially if you are not in Europe or a major metropolitan city, have either never heard of it (so very frustrating!!), or do not keep the needed ingredients readily available ("What, no peach purée?!?"). A lover of the Bellini must also have to endure inevitable ridicule from those closest to them, because while there are many who will happily drink a standard beer at a standard bar, a Bellini-lover is never really satisfied with anything else. This often times puts pressure on others to plan gatherings at snootier establishments just to ensure a more pleasant evening without dissapointment. You know, in all honesty, what is so wrong with that? The next time you are out, please order a Bellini and enjoy a fizzy piece of Venetian heaven for yourself.

(Giovanni Bellini paintings from top to bottom: "Feast Of The Gods," 1514-1529;"Naked Young Woman In Front Of Mirror," 1515; "Staint Christopher, Jerome and Louis of Toulouse," ca. 1513)

Written by Kaisa Talaga