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There is only one Venice, a beautiful city whose fame
as a meeting place for artists, writers, royalty, the very rich, as well as lots of very ordinary Europeans, has long been the stuff of legend. The majesty of this glorious
city is well documented, but there is another icon which symbolises Venice and that is the Bellini, a distinctive cocktail made from a frothy combination of white peach juice and Prosecco. The drink was rst invented in 1930’s by the legendary Guiseppe Cipriani, founder
of the word renowned Harry’s Bar and named for the Italian artist Giovanni Bellini. If you haven’t had Prosecco as an “ombretta” (evening cocktail) you haven’t really experienced Venice!
A few years ago I learnt the art of making these Prosecco cocktails under the watchful eye of the head barman at the world-renowned Hotel Danieli. As it was January and peaches were out of season, he encouraged us to try instead the Mimosa, a blend of Prosecco with fresh Sicilian mandarin juice We then tried the Rossini, a blend of Prosecco and fresh strawberry puree.
Prosecco is a light fresh sparkling wine, low in alcohol and intensely aromatic. The DOC is for a dry white
wine labelled Tranquille (still), or for the sparkling wines labelled either Gentile or Frizzante (slightly sparkling) or Spumante (fully sparkling). The driest wines are labelled brut, and the sweeter ones “extra dry”. Prosecco is best- drunk young and should be served well chilled. Prosecco used to be both the name of the grape and the wine but in 2009 the wine laws of the region were changed and the grape is now known as Glera. That year the classi cation for Prosecco was raised to DOCG Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin level the highest quality level for Italian wines.
The wine is made sparkling using the cuve close (or tank) method whereby the second fermentation takes place in a large tank prior to filtration and bottling under pressure.
The DOC applies to the region, which runs 33km from the town of Congegliano to the picturesque village of Valdiobbiandene in the Treviso province of Veneto. There