Bellini

No, this is not a recipe for Blini, the tiny pancakes donned with caviar. This is the Bellini, a light-pink-hued cocktail made with Prosecco or sparkling wine and fresh peach puree, that is ready for all your boozy brunch needs. Akin to the Mimosa, the Bellini blends a more fruit-forward sparkling wine with tart and sweet peach. The result is a balanced, sweet and floral cocktail that pairs well with pancakes, omelets, and just about anything else you might be ordering around brunch time.

The Bellini is most associated with one iconic restaurant, Cipriani. According to the Cirpriani group, Guiseppi Cipriani invented the cocktail in 1948 to be served at his Venice-based restaurant, Harry’s Bar. Cipriani had a penchant for white peaches, and paired the peach puree with Prosecco, the iconic sparkling wine made from the Glera grape in the local Veneto region of Italy. He aptly named the cocktail after Giovanni Bellini, a Venetian painter. Since then, the cocktail has become a mainstay on the menu at Harry’s Bar and other Cipriani restaurants all over the world. 

While peach and Prosecco are the stars of the show, sugar and lemon can be added to help balance out the flavors of the cocktail, and to enhance the essence of peach. Homemade peach puree is preferable; if you’re looking for a bit more bitterness, try the Blood Peach Bellini which leans on a bit of Campari, a bittersweet Italian aperitif. Bright red Camapari gives this twist on a Bellini a gorgeous peachy-red hue. 

The classic Bellini, though, cannot be beat. Read on for everything you need to know about making this delicious peach-and-bubbly cocktail. (And pro tip: make extra peach puree and have a bottle or two of bubbly on hand, these go fast and you will be wanting more).