The Invention Of The Negroni Sbagliato Was A Happy Accident
If you're a "House of the Dragon" fan, or just love a good internet meme, then you probably remember the viral HBO Max interview clip of actor Emma D'Arcy sharing their go-to cocktail: "a negroni — sbagliato — with prosecco in it." Stunning. Whether the drink sounded good because of D'Arcy's charming voice or the mention of prosecco, netizens started hounding bars for this alluring negroni in 2022. A sbagliato is even celebrity chef Bobby Flay's favorite cocktail.
Well, sbagliato is actually an Italian word meaning "mistaken" or "wrong." The negroni sbagliato was the 1972 invention of Milan bartender Mirko Stocchetto, who "mistakenly" swapped out gin for sparkling wine while mixing a negroni. A traditional negroni recipe calls for ice, vermouth, Campari, gin, and an orange garnish — no prosecco. You can't have a true negroni without gin, but the addition of prosecco helps balance the Campari's bitterness and the vermouth's sweetness. Thus, a negroni sbagliato is just the result of a cocktail made incorrectly. Many report that Stocchetto did this by accident, but there's more to the legend than you might think.
Was the negroni sbagliato truly accidental?
Mirko Stocchetto's son, Maurizio, set the negroni sbagliato's origin story straight. According to the younger Stocchetto, his lifelong bartender father wouldn't have made a clumsy mistake such as grabbing the wrong bottle and pouring it for a customer. Rather, there was a specific order the liquors had to be, and another bartender misplaced the gin, leaving Mirko Stocchetto to improvise.
"My father took a glass, filled the glass with ice, he garnished it with a slice of orange, then he grabbed the bottle of Campari, then he grabbed the bottle of vermouth. Then without looking, he grabbed the bottle of gin," Maurizio Stocchetto recalled in a 2022 interview with Slate. "But instead, he found himself with a bottle of sparkling wine, a prosecco. So he didn't feel like changing the bottle. It occurred to him that the combination made some sense," he continued.
Maurizio claimed that his father started experimenting with delicious Italian cocktails in the late 1960s and early 1970s, during a time of social change in Milan where Italian fashion and counterculture expanded. Sparkling wine cocktails became more popular, too. A moment of grabbing the wrong bottle became a moment of inspiration for the bartender. Thanks to Mirko Stocchetto's happy accident, the negroni sbagliato is something we can enjoy on purpose today.