Low · sparkling
Bellini
White peach purée under prosecco, invented at Harry's Bar in Venice. The brunch welcome drink, soft, pink and short.
- Pour
- 125 ml
- Strength
- Low
- Best for
- Brunch, Weddings
- Season
- Summer, Spring
- Fizz
- Added at the door
- Ahead
- Jug ahead, top at the door
The welcome pour
One glass, 125 ml
Champagne flute, no ice. Garnish: none. Cipriani serves it plain.
The spec, according to the IBA: 100 ml prosecco and 50 ml white peach purée, stirred gently and poured into a chilled flute. Cipriani, who invented it at Harry's Bar in 1948, makes it one part purée to three parts prosecco and insists the peaches are mashed, never blended.
| Ingredient | Per glass | When |
|---|---|---|
| White peach purée | 45 ml (1.5 fl oz) | in the jug |
| Prosecco | 80 ml (2.5 fl oz) | at the door |
The jug
How much for your party
One welcome drink per guest plus a 15% spare. Sparkling wine and soda are counted here but stay in the fridge until the door.
| Ingredient | Amount | When |
|---|---|---|
| White peach purée | 650 ml 22 fl oz | in the jug |
| Prosecco 2 × 750 ml bottles | 1.2 L 5 cups | at the door |
| The jug holds 650 ml (22 fl oz), which is 1 1.5-litre jug filled to 85%. Added per glass at the door: 1.2 L in all. | ||
Make it
In the jug, then at the door
Ahead. Make the purée the same morning: ripe white peaches, skin on, mashed with a fork or a potato masher and pushed through a sieve. Cipriani's rule is no blender, because it whips air into the fruit and the Bellini goes foamy. Keep the purée cold and covered.
At the door. 45 ml of purée in the flute, then 80 ml of prosecco poured slowly. Stir gently with a long spoon so the purée does not sit at the bottom.
Keeps. Same day only. Peach purée browns and separates overnight even in the fridge.
- Buy ripe white peaches; yellow peaches make a fine drink but not a Bellini. Budget one medium peach for every three glasses, and buy a couple extra.
- Mash the peaches with the skin on, pressing firmly, then push the pulp through a sieve. A squeeze of lemon keeps the colour.
- Chill the purée and the prosecco for at least three hours.
- Pour the purée into the flutes ten minutes before guests arrive, no earlier, or it settles and dries at the rim.
- At the door: prosecco, a gentle stir, hand over.
The alcohol-free twin
Peach fizz
Cipriani sells a bottled virgin Bellini, but no home recipe we would cite exists, so this is ours: the same purée topped with alcohol-free sparkling wine, or with sparkling water and a squeeze of lemon if you would rather not buy a bottle.
Exactly like the original: purée in the flute, cold fizz on top, a gentle stir.
This twin is our own recipe, not a published one. We say so wherever that is the case.
| Ingredient | Per glass | When |
|---|---|---|
| White peach purée | 45 ml (1.5 fl oz) | in the jug |
| Alcohol-free sparkling wine (or sparkling water with 5 ml lemon juice) | 80 ml (2.5 fl oz) | at the door |
Why it works at the door
Bellini, in three paragraphs
Giuseppe Cipriani, founder of Harry's Bar in Venice, invented it, and the bar has served it since 1948. It is a summer drink by nature, because white peaches are a summer fruit, and a daytime drink by temperament: low in alcohol, fruit-forward, the thing you hand people at a wedding brunch or a garden lunch.
It is the fussiest of our sparkling drinks, and honestly so. The purée has to be made the same day, by hand, and it settles in the glass if it is poured too early. What you get for the trouble is a drink nobody else at the door is serving from a bottle.
Cipriani's own proportion is one part purée to three parts prosecco; the IBA writes it as one to two. We sit between them at 45 ml of purée under 80 ml of prosecco, a 125 ml pour that gives six glasses a bottle and enough fruit to taste.
Questions hosts ask
Can I use tinned or frozen peaches?
Frozen white peach purée, sold for cocktails, works well and saves the sieving. Tinned peaches in syrup make a sweeter, flatter Bellini; if you use them, drain and rinse them first and skip any extra sugar.
Why not blend the peaches?
Cipriani's method is to mash them with a fork or potato masher and sieve, because a blender beats air into the fruit and the Bellini foams over when the prosecco hits it.
How many peaches for 20 guests?
At 45 ml of purée a glass and a 15% spare you need about a litre of purée. Budget one medium white peach for every three glasses, so eight to ten peaches, and buy extra in case some are hard.
Next to it on the tray