BELLA Aperitiv Spritz - non-alcoholic aperitif

The “spritz” we know as fröccs has quite old origins. It was born somewhere in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, around the same time as the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. As a crown and hereditary province of the Austrian Empire, a large number of Austrian soldiers were stationed in this region, so they were able to get acquainted with the wines of the Veneto region. The acquaintance did not start very well, as the local wines were too strong for their taste, so in the end their hosts thought it wisest to dilute their highly valued juice with carbonated water. The name of the cocktail made in this way comes from the German verb “spritzen”, which means “to splash”, a custom considered by great wine lovers to be the most sacrilegious practice.

White wine and sparkling water: this was the first spritz, the Austro-Hungarian model. In many parts of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, if someone asks for a Spritz, this is still what they will serve.

In the early 1900s, the first soda siphons became popular as an alternative to sparkling water. But the cocktail as we know it today wasn't born until the 1920s, when a little bitters was added to the mix.