Virgin Bellini

All the peachy elegance of the Harry's Bar classic without the alcohol – white peach purée topped with sparkling water

The Bellini was created by Giuseppe Cipriani, the founder of Harry's Bar in Venice, in 1948. Cipriani had opened Harry's Bar in 1931 with financial backing from a young American named Harry Pickering, naming the establishment in his honor. The bar at Calle Vallaresso near the Piazza San Marco became a legendary gathering place for writers, filmmakers, and artists of the mid-20th century — Ernest Hemingway was a regular, as was Orson Welles, Charlie Chaplin, and Truman Capote. Cipriani created the Bellini for a retrospective exhibition of the Venetian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini (c.1430–1516) that was being held at the Doge's Palace in 1948. The drink's pale rose-gold color — produced by combining white peach purée with Prosecco — reminded Cipriani of the warm tonal glow in Giovanni Bellini's paintings of saints and madonnas. The formula is intentionally simple: white peach purée, which must come from the aromatic Tabacchiera or flat peach varieties that grow in the Veneto, combined with chilled Prosecco and served immediately in a flute. Cipriani insisted on white peaches specifically because their flavor and color differ significantly from yellow peaches. The drink became so associated with Harry's Bar that it was eventually granted Protected Geographical Indication status by the European Union. The non-alcoholic version substitutes sparkling water or NA sparkling wine for the Prosecco.