After our founder’s recent trip to Venice Italy, which inspired this series of articles we are writing about the best non touristy things to do in Venice, focusing on what the locals do in Venice, from bars and eateries, wine and food, including this easy recipe for an authentic Venice appetizer, made with bacala, or cod, we realized we would be remiss to not mention the Spritz: it’s the 1 drink that rules Venice, and the most prevalent cocktail you find Italians enjoying at aperitivos not only in wine bar Venice, but around the region of Veneto and as well as other parts of Northern Italy.

Thanks to the Campari Group’s acquisition 20 years ago of the Aperol spirit product and its subsequent promotion in the US, Spritz has become a go-to cocktail of choice for Americans too, because the classic recipe Spritz calls for Aperol making Spritz Aperol the most common, so common that the orange color of the cocktail is not only inviting but also a strong brand identifier for Spritz Aperol.

What’s behind the phenomenon of the Spritz Italian? For those of you making cocktails at home, we have a recipe Spritz Aperol - a recipe, one of many, because it is a very personal taste preference of how you like your spritz, like asking someone how you like your coffee!

History & Culture Behind the Spritz

According to Wikipedia, the origins of the Spritz traces back to the Austrian Empire when troops were in Northern Italy, including the Veneto region where Venice Italy is based, and they added sparkling water, or seltzer, to local Italian wine. In fact the word “spritz” derives from the German word “spritzen” which means to squirt or spray.

In fact, if you go to parts of Northern Italy today, like Trieste, in the northern easternmost Fruili Venezia Giulia region, a Spritz to them is exactly how the Austrian soldiers had it: with white wine and a splash of soda water. Fun fact: a local in Trieste admitted to Vero founder, Sheila Donohue, that adding water to wine was done to mask the wine’s defects, and even today, a Spritz in Trieste is usually made with the house wine, which is typically lower in quality.

The Spritz cocktail as we know it today came about in the early 1900s, in and around Venice, when the locals started to add ‘bitters,’ or aromatic plants, to their Spritzes, leading in 1919 to the ‘birth’ of Aperol in Padua, a city just east of Venice in the Veneto region, along with an Aperol competitor called Select, which started 1 year after Aperol. Both of these spirits are ‘amari’, plural for amaro, which literally means bitter in Italian. Amaro spirits have an old tradition in Italy, ranging from lighter ones, like Aperol, for pre-dinner cocktails, to stronger flavored after-dinner liqueurs called a ‘digestivo’ in Italian since in theory it helps to digest your food after a meal.

While Spritz cocktails you find in Italy today are primarily Spritzes made with one of these lighter amaro spirits, like Aperol or Campari, Americans for several years now have gotten the ‘Spritz bug’ and are going crazy making up their own recipes for Spritz cocktails, from professional mixologist to your amateur home bartender, with all sorts of liqueurs, juices and other ingredients added.

But what are the 2 must-have ingredients in a Spritz? The answer lies with the Austrian Empire soldiers who started this craze.

Key Ingredients in a Spritz

One of the base ingredients in a Spritz is Prosecco, the Italian sparkling wine that comes from the area where the modern Spritz was born. Not surprisingly, when you travel between Padova and Venice, what do you cross just to the north of you? The Prosecco wine region!

As we covered in past articles, Prosecco sparkling wine is made from the glera grape which has a naturally high acidity and lends well to making a fresh, light, low alcohol sparkling wine. As we’re sure you know, Prosecco on its own is a delightful white sparkling wine, when made with by a really good quality producer like Col del Balt estate of the Sanzovo family, and when made from a place very suitable for this grape, like Valdobbiadene, which you can learn about here.

However, with the Spritz craze upon us, we, Americans, know that there are many other good uses for Prosecco, right?

When we asked some Vero producers based in Veneto Italy what is their favorite type of Spritz, Sandro di Bruno came back with a definitive response: the key to a good Spritz is to have good Prosecco. He said that most Spritzes are made with cheap Prosecco. Instead, the better the Prosecco, the better the Spritz.

The second key ingredient to a Spritz is carbonated water. Call it what you like, sparkling water vs mineral water, sparkling water vs soda, seltzer. Or, for you Italophiles, what is sparkling water in Italian?… you would remember going to an Italian restaurant, perhaps a Venice Italy restaurant, with the waiter asking “acqua gazzata” or perhaps instead “acqua frizzante?” Like in America, also in Italy they use different words to mean sparkling water.

One nice thing about Spritz is that it is lower in alcohol, making it ‘just right’ even for a midweek cocktail on a “school night.” Prosecco, to begin with, is a wine that is low in alcohol, also known as low ABV. Then, by adding sparkling water, you still get the effervescence and can lighten up the cocktail as you wish, depending on how mindful and health conscious you’d like to be. In fact, like Prosecco cocktails, sparkling water cocktails are also big.

Adding bitters to Prosecco and sparkling water, like with the Aperol apéritif, gives the Spritz some character, while, with its 11% ABV, still keeps the percentage of alcohol low.

Making a Spritz

Just like how in wine you want balance of the contrasting elements, like acidity, sugar and bitterness, so in a Spritz you want to achieve that balance. The 3 ingredients in our Spritz recipe are the 3 we talked about: Prosecco, Aperol/bitters, and sparkling water. Each ingredient brings different aspects to the Spritz, like acidity, sweetness, bitterness, effervescence. In fact, while writing this article we asked Fabio Sanzovo, who makes artisanal Valdobbiadene Prosecco with his brother Carlo with their estate winery Col del Balt, what is his favorite Spritz recipe, and he answered: part Prosecco (his of course!), part Aperol, part sparkling water.

So what are the portions?

The Italian version of Wikipedia has a recipe Spritz Aperol yet it is not exact. But next to the sparkling water quantity is written ‘qb’ which stands for ‘quanto basta’ meaning ‘to taste.’ These are real italian recipes for you - there is a lot of room for personalization. In fact, when you go out, even in a wine bar Venice, you’'ll find a large variation of these proportions, with some Spritzes tasting more bitter, some more sweet… and some just right! Admittedly the amount of ice that is used can make the difference, as well as what Sandro de Bruno believes, that the better the Prosecco, the better the Spritz… as they say about Italian food: the secret is in the quality of the ingredients, and the same goes with cocktails!

Spritz recipe

Turns out, our founder, Sheila Donohue, is a long time Spritz fan, which she discovered first in wine bar Venice, then Bologna, Milan, etc. Over time, she got to know the bars and bartenders who make Spritzes that she likes, not too sweet, not to bitter but still flavorful. Then she started to make her own Spritz Aperol at home and discovered her preferences, which is with a larger quantity of sparkling water and little amount of ice.

With this combination, it is light, refreshing, goes down smooth, pairs well with appetizers, and is lower in alcohol too. Check out her recipe below and try Col Del Balt’s Valdobbiadene Prosecco too. Then you’ll ready for your own Spritz party at home or to surprise friends and family at your next get together.

Vero’s Sheila Donohue Spritz Recipe

Prep Time: 2 minutes
Servings: 2 glasses

Ingredients:
4 oz of chilled Col del Balt | Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Brut (if you only have their Extra Dry Prosecco on hand, that’s fine too)
2 oz of Aperol
4 oz sparkling water, chilled
1-2 ice cubes
Thin slice of orange per glass (or a thin slice whatever fruit you have on hand, or 1-2 berries)

Procedure:
1. Add Col del Balt Valdobbiadene Prosecco to a small pitcher. Then add Aperol and sparkling water, and mix with a ladle.

2. Pour into glass. Add ice and piece of fruit or 1-2 berries.

3. Cin cin (aka toast) to the person sitting next to you, and enjoy.

Tip: have an appetizer handy. For the real Venice / Veneto experience, make our recipe for baccalà mantecato, aka creamed cod.

What Sparkling Wine do you Need for a Spritz?