Negroni Sbagliato
A Negroni Sbagliato is 30ml of Campari and 30ml of sweet vermouth stirred briefly over ice in a rocks glass, topped with 30ml of cold brut prosecco poured down the side, with an orange slice. About 1.6 UK units, two thirds of a Negroni’s. Sbagliato means mistaken. Campari dates it to 1972, at Bar Basso in Milan, when Mirko Stocchetto, reaching for the gin to make a Negroni, poured sparkling wine instead; Difford’s Guide puts it in the late 1980s. The bar kept the drink, and the name Negroni Sbagliato is registered by Bar Basso as a trade mark. It sits on the rung between an Americano and a Negroni: bitter and vermouth-rich like both, with wine’s body and a fine sparkle where the soda or the gin would be. The bubbles are the fragile part, so the prosecco goes in last and is barely stirred.
Glassware: Rocks Glass
Garnish: Orange slice
Ingredients
30ml
Around 25% ABV, and the bottle every drink in this family shares. Its bitter orange is what the vermouth and the wine are built around.
30ml
A rich Italian style at about 16% ABV; Bar Basso’s recipe names Carpano as the original. Refrigerated once open, because it is a third of the glass.
30ml
Brut and cold, around 11% ABV. Bar Basso’s recipe asks for spumante brut, a dry Italian sparkling wine, and prosecco is the usual choice. Poured last and gently, because the bubbles are what make it a Sbagliato.
Instructions
Fill a rocks glass with cubed ice.
Add the Campari and sweet vermouth and stir briefly to chill.
Top with the chilled prosecco, poured gently down the inside of the glass.
Lift once with a bar spoon and add an orange slice.
Our version
Not an IBA cocktail. Bar Basso’s recipe is equal parts spumante brut, red vermouth and Campari; ours is 30ml of each, with brut prosecco, built over ice in a rocks glass.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Stir the Campari and vermouth over the ice first, then pour the prosecco down the inside of the glass and give it one slow lift with the spoon at most. Stir it like a Negroni and the bubbles are gone. Use brut prosecco, cold from the fridge. A sweeter extra dry against sweet vermouth turns the glass syrupy, and warm wine goes flat at once. Store the vermouth cold and use it up within a month. It makes up a third of the drink, and a tired bottle flattens everything else.
Behind the Negroni Sbagliato
Flavour Profile
The Origin
Bar Basso opened in Milan in 1933 and moved to Via Plinio in 1947. In 1967 two Venetian bartenders, Renato Hausamann and Mirko Stocchetto, took it over, and Campari dates the Sbagliato to 1972; Difford’s Guide puts it in the late 1980s.
The story is Stocchetto’s: making a Negroni, he reached for the gin and poured spumante brut instead. Sbagliato means mistaken. The bar kept the drink, and it became the house’s best-known order.
Bar Basso’s recipe is equal parts, three centilitres each of spumante brut, red vermouth and Campari, built over ice with a slice of orange. Ours keeps the measures and uses brut prosecco.
The Missing Rung
Campari and sweet vermouth sit under three drinks, and what changes between them is only what lengthens the base.
Add soda and you have the Americano: long, light and low in alcohol. Add gin for the Negroni: short, strong and slow. Prosecco makes the Sbagliato, with the Americano’s sparkle and wine’s body, at about two thirds of a Negroni’s alcohol.
The Campari and Vermouth Family
One base, four drinks
Milano-Torino
- Campari
- 45ml
- Sweet vermouth
- 45ml
- Lengthened with
- Nothing; ice only
- UK units
- About 1.8
Americano
- Campari
- 30ml
- Sweet vermouth
- 30ml
- Lengthened with
- 75ml soda water
- UK units
- About 1.2
Negroni Sbagliato
- Campari
- 30ml
- Sweet vermouth
- 30ml
- Lengthened with
- 30ml prosecco
- UK units
- About 1.6
Negroni
- Campari
- 30ml
- Sweet vermouth
- 30ml
- Lengthened with
- 30ml gin
- UK units
- About 2.4
| Drink | Campari | Sweet vermouth | Lengthened with | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milano-Torino | 45ml | 45ml | Nothing; ice only | About 1.8 |
| Americano | 30ml | 30ml | 75ml soda water | About 1.2 |
| Negroni Sbagliato | 30ml | 30ml | 30ml prosecco | About 1.6 |
| Negroni | 30ml | 30ml | 30ml gin | About 2.4 |
Start at the Milano-Torino to taste the base on its own; the Americano and the Negroni are the other two branches.
The Prosecco
Brut, and cold. Warmth and sweetness are the two ways the drink goes wrong. Pour it down the inside of the glass after the base is stirred, and lift once at most; the bubbles do not survive a second stir.
Glass and Ice
A rocks glass filled with cubed ice keeps the drink short and cold, and the cold slows the wine going flat. A wine glass gives the aroma more room if you want it a little longer.
For a Party
Mix equal parts Campari and sweet vermouth in a bottle and keep it in the fridge; it lasts about four weeks, as an open vermouth does.
For each glass, pour 60ml over ice, stir briefly and top with 30ml of cold prosecco. The only perishable part comes from a cold bottle at the last moment, so a late guest gets the same drink as the first.
How to Serve It
Built in a rocks glass over ice, with an orange slice seated against the ice. Serve it before food: bitter, light and quick to make.
Make it at home
The Spirit
CampariCampari is a red Italian bitter liqueur, 25% ABV in the UK, made by steeping herbs and fruit in alcohol and water to an unpublished recipe. Gaspare Campari first made it in Novara in 1860. Its bitterness anchors the Negroni and the Americano, and lengthened with soda over ice it needs nothing else.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What does sbagliato mean?
Who invented the Negroni Sbagliato?
Can I use champagne instead of prosecco?
Is a Negroni Sbagliato stirred or shaken?
What glass does a Sbagliato take?
Can I batch a Negroni Sbagliato?
How strong is a Negroni Sbagliato?
You Might Also Like
Negroni
A Negroni is 30ml each of gin, Campari and sweet vermouth, stirred with ice for 20 to 30 seconds and strained over fresh ice in a rocks glass, with an orange peel expressed over the top. About 2.4 UK units. The measures are the IBA’s; the IBA builds the drink in the glass and garnishes it with half an orange slice. The usual story puts it in Florence in 1919, at the Caffè Casoni, where the bartender Fosco Scarselli is said to have replaced the soda in Count Camillo Negroni’s Americano with gin. No record from the time backs it. Equal parts of the three first appear in a French bar book of 1929, and the name Negroni reaches print for a cocktail in 1947. Each third has a job. Gin gives strength and juniper, Campari bitterness and orange, and the vermouth body and sugar. With no juice or soda in the glass, a tired vermouth shows at once.
Americano
An Americano is 30ml Campari and 30ml sweet vermouth built over ice in a highball, topped with 75ml of cold soda and stirred once, with an orange slice. Bitter and sweet in equal measure, lengthened with soda: a Negroni with soda in place of the gin, at about half the alcohol. It grew out of the Milano-Torino, Campari from Milan with vermouth from Turin, and the usual account places it at Gaspare Campari’s café in Milan. Where the name Americano came from is not established. The popular explanation is the American visitors who drank it. The vermouth decides the result. At equal volume with the Campari it has nowhere to hide, and an opened bottle that has stood at room temperature for months will flatten the drink. Keep it in the fridge.
Aperol Spritz
An Aperol Spritz is three parts prosecco, two parts Aperol and one part soda: 90ml prosecco, 60ml Aperol and 30ml soda water, poured in that order into a large wine glass packed with ice, with an orange slice to finish. That is the International Bartenders Association’s Spritz, with its splash of soda measured. Aperol is an Italian aperitivo at 11% ABV, bitter orange with rhubarb and gentian, launched by Luigi and Silvio Barbieri in Padua in 1919. The spritz habit in the Veneto is older; the usual account traces it to Austrian soldiers adding water to the local wine. Pour the prosecco first and the Aperol mixes as it goes in. A glass holds about 1.7 UK units.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 12 October 2026