The aperitif is typical of Italian culture: it derives from the Latin “aperire”, meaning to open, because it represents a ritual in which one is in company, picking out some snacks to open the stomach and prepare it for the next meal. This happens by sipping sometimes a glass of wine, sometimes a cocktail. Sometimes, however, these two worlds meet: there are numerous wine-based cocktails that already exist, and they become more and more numerous every year, thanks to mixologists from all over the world who give free rein to their creativity.
The most purist of wine lovers turn up their noses at the thought of mixing their favorite drink with other “foreign objects”: for them, wine should be drunk alone, without adding anything that could change its organoleptic characteristics. For these more orthodox wine lovers, any addition of ingredients to the glass of wine risks covering its flavors and thus “debasing” its characteristics. Despite the skepticism and disapproval of a part of wine lovers, wine-based cocktails are increasingly popular in recent years. It caused a sensation when at Vinitaly, in 2012, the Masi company, one of the leaders of Valpolicella, presented its “Reciojito”, or rather a Mojito based on Recioto, the typical sweet wine from Veneto. In the following years, the attempts of barmen from all over the world to rejuvenate and innovate the world of wine by mixing it with other ingredients, including experimentation, provocation and homage to their territory, have multiplied. For example, the Tuscan Sour by barman Alessandro Pitanti, a variant of New York Sour made up of Vodka made in Tuscany, lemon juice, sugar, egg white and Sangiovese wine.
But wine-based cocktails are not just a novelty of recent years, but there are some very famous and appreciated by all fans. From the Spanish Sangria and Agua de Valencia, to the French Kir, to the Mimosa and Champagne Cocktail much loved in the United States.
But Italy is also no exception, and offers a wide range of wine-based blends, sometimes even with a very ancient history. The first to be mentioned can only be him, the new star of cocktail bars all over the world: the Spritz! A simple but irresistible alchemy between Prosecco, bitter, soda and a slice of orange, the Spritz was born in the wonderful setting of Venice, where in 1800, under the domination of the Habsburgs, they loved to mix the local white wine with a spray (precisely from the German “Spritzen”) of water to lighten it: unlike the Venetians, the Austrians were not used to the alcohol content of wine. Over time the drink also became popular among the inhabitants of the city, who however personalized it with a unique touch: the proud Venetians with the addition of the bitter colored the cocktail red, the color of the Republic of Venice, as a provocation addressed to the Austrian occupants. whose color was blue.
Also in Venice, in the first half of the twentieth century, the legendary Giuseppe Cipriani invented other classic cocktails of the tradition: it is the Bellini and its variants, the Rossini, Puccini and Tintoretto. The ingenious bartender at Harry’s Bar created a simple blend of Prosecco and fresh peach puree, and named it that because that pinkish color reminded him of a saint’s toga in a 15th-century painting by the Venetian painter Bellini. Likewise, the strawberry, mandarin and pomegranate juice inspired the creator to dedicate the cocktails to the artists Rossini, Puccini and Tintoretto respectively.
But not only Venice: Milan is also home to cocktails that feature wine among their ingredients. This is the case of the Negroni Sbagliato, conceived by Mirko Stocchetto in 1972 at the Bar Basso in Milan. The Milanese bartender replaced the gin of the classic Negroni cocktail with a brut sparkling wine, to create a lighter cocktail than the original.
The blending of wine is accused of covering its characteristics, however there is no lack of contrary opinions, which instead claim that different and sometimes forgotten aspects of this drink are enhanced in the cocktail. For example, the famous wine critic Andrea Grignaffini in Repubblica declares that “wine acquires an ingredient dimension and regains its thirst-quenching function it once had, for example in the countryside, when laborers and peasants used the so-called half wines, that is very light wines, often Lambrusco, diluted with cold water or lots of ice and sometimes with lemon drops. For me they are not a barbarism of the wine culture but in case a memory of the roots. “Even the Campari Barman of the Year 2017 Alessandro Pitanti looks at the roots and history of wine, recalling the” Hippocratic wines, those that were called by the Romans wines tanned. They were treated with herbs (this is the family of chinati and vermouths) with the double function of making them more pleasant and also better preservable. ” In these ways the wine re-appropriated the guise of a rural drink, or compensated for the poor quality due to the lack of today’s enological technologies.
Wine cocktails are an important part of the Italian lifestyle. In the common imagination, the Italian relaxes and enjoys life while sipping a Spritz in front of the breathtaking views of our country. Who knows in how many other magnificent ways wine will be able to innovate and amaze us with new combinations!
