Harry's Bar, Venice, 1948.
| 1½ oz · 45 ml | WHITE PEACH PUREE | |
| 4 oz · 120 ml | PROSECCO | 11 % |
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
1 oz taken as 30 ml in the metric column.
| Pre-batch | 1.5 oz mixed with ice, 0 oz of it pure alcohol |
|---|---|
| Melt | Stirred: +15 % of the pre-batch, +0.22 oz of water |
| Topped | Poured after the melt, kept whole: prosecco 4 oz, +0.44 oz of alcohol |
| Served | 1.5 + 0.22 + 4 = 5.72 oz in the glass, 0.44 oz of it alcohol |
| Strength | 0.44 ÷ 5.72 = 7.7 % ABV as served |
| Ethanol | 0.44 oz × 29.57 ml × 0.789 g/ml = 10 g · about 72 kcal from the alcohol alone |
FROM SPARKLING · the brioche note from yeast aging
The fresh-bread aroma: basmati rice, pandan leaves, jasmine rice, and the bottom crust of any baked loaf all share it. In wine and beer it appears during yeast autolysis: dead yeast cells slowly release the molecule during long aging on the lees. Champagne's signature brioche note is acetyl pyrroline doing the work; a tank-method sparkling without lees aging doesn't develop it.
White peach puree and Prosecco. Peach's γ- and δ-decalactone carry the stone-fruit aroma. Prosecco's CO₂ amplifies the volatiles, so the nose reads louder than the roughly 8% ABV would suggest.
Purée first. Prosecco second. Henry's Law: opened, the Prosecco holds more CO₂ than it can keep at the glass's 1 atm, and the purée's fruit fiber gives the gas places to form bubbles, so a fast pour foams over. Poured slowly down the side, with one gentle barspoon stir to lift the thick purée, more of the CO₂ stays in solution.
Giuseppe Cipriani composed the Bellini at Harry's Bar in Venice in 1948, naming it for the pink toga of a saint in a Giovanni Bellini painting whose hue the drink matched. White peaches (not yellow) were essential: their flesh purées to the right pale-pink color and their low acid and floral aroma suit the dry prosecco. Frozen white-peach puree was eventually bottled by Cipriani for export so the drink could travel.
