BELLINIS
The Peach Bellini is one of Italy's most popular cocktails. With it's easy recipe and colourful presentation, the half-century old drink is now gaining popularity in the UK too.
Purists say the cocktail is simply peach purée and prosecco poured into a flute glass. That's the 1948 version from Harry's Bar, a legendary hangout in Venice (regular customers included Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis and Orson Welles). Head bartender Arrigo Cipriani had a fondness 'the story goes' for Italian white peaches, which were in season June to September. He also liked the artwork of Giovanni Bellini, a 15th-century Venetian painter.
So Cipriani created a concoction that would celebrate Italian peaches and the colour most popular in Bellini's work.