Sgroppino
A Sgroppino is a scoop of sharp lemon sorbet whisked with 20ml of vodka and 60ml of cold prosecco into a pourable froth, served at once in a chilled flute with a lemon twist. About 1.5 UK units. Some lemon sorbets are set with egg white, so check the tub for anyone allergic to egg. It comes from Venice, where it is poured between courses or after a heavy meal. The name usually gets traced back to the Venetian verb sgropàre, to untie, and its work is to loosen the knot a long dinner leaves behind. Technique decides it. Soften the sorbet for two minutes, whisk the vodka through, then fold the prosecco in a little at a time. A blender shears the mixture and knocks the gas out of the wine, and the result is slush rather than froth.
Glassware: Champagne Flute
Garnish: Lemon twist over the froth
Ingredients
1 scoop
Sharp rather than sweet, because it supplies the body and the acid at once. Some brands set their sorbet with egg white, so read the tub if anyone at the table is allergic to egg. Soften it for two minutes before whisking.
20ml
Around 40% ABV and plain. It adds strength without flavour and, by lowering the freezing point a little, keeps the froth loose enough to pour.
60ml
Brut and well chilled, around 11% ABV. Added in stages: each pour whisked in builds the froth, where the whole measure at once drowns it.
Instructions
Chill a flute in the freezer.
Put the scoop of lemon sorbet in a chilled bowl and leave it to soften for two minutes.
Add the vodka and whisk until smooth.
Add the prosecco in three or four pours, whisking each in before the next, until the mixture is a smooth, pourable froth.
Pour into the chilled flute at once and express a lemon twist over the top.
Our version
Difford’s Guide gives lemon sorbet, vodka, Prosecco and a little whipping cream, so versions vary. Ours is one scoop of sharp lemon sorbet, 20ml of vodka and 60ml of brut prosecco, whisked by hand and served in a flute.
Source: our own specification. Last checked 9 October 2026.
Expert Tip
Use a whisk or a fork, never a blender. The blades tear the froth apart and drive the bubbles out of the prosecco, so the glass ends up holding sweet slush with no lift. Let the sorbet soften for about two minutes first. Rock-hard sorbet will not take the vodka, and the struggle is what sends people reaching for the blender. Add the prosecco in three or four pours, whisking each one in before the next. Tipping it all in at once floods the sorbet and leaves a thin lemon fizz instead of a froth that holds.
Behind the Sgroppino
Flavour Profile
Where It Comes From
The Sgroppino is Venetian, and it is usually described as a palate cleanser: lemon sorbet loosened with wine and served between courses or after them. The name is generally traced to the dialect verb sgropàre, to untie, for the knot a rich meal ties.
Recipes differ: Difford’s Guide gives lemon sorbet, vodka, Prosecco and a little whipping cream, and describes the drink as a hybrid of cocktail and dessert often served after meals in Venice.
Why the Whisk Matters
What is being built is an emulsion: sorbet, spirit and sparkling wine held together as a froth thicker than a spritz and lighter than a dessert. It has to pour.
A whisk folds air in and leaves the bubbles alone. A blender’s blades shear the mix and drive the carbonation out of the prosecco, and what comes out is a cold slurry with nothing to lift it.
Soften the sorbet, whisk in the vodka, then the prosecco in stages. The whole job takes about three minutes and cannot be rushed.
What Each Part Does
The Sgroppino, part by part
Lemon sorbet
- Measure
- One scoop
- Job
- Body and acid; sharp, not sweet
- UK units
- None
Vodka
- Measure
- 20ml
- Job
- Strength, and a looser froth
- UK units
- 0.8
Prosecco
- Measure
- 60ml
- Job
- Bubbles and wine, added in stages
- UK units
- About 0.66
The glass
- Measure
- A chilled flute
- Job
- Drunk while the froth stands
- UK units
- About 1.5 in all
| Part | Measure | Job | UK units |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lemon sorbet | One scoop | Body and acid; sharp, not sweet | None |
| Vodka | 20ml | Strength, and a looser froth | 0.8 |
| Prosecco | 60ml | Bubbles and wine, added in stages | About 0.66 |
| The glass | A chilled flute | Drunk while the froth stands | About 1.5 in all |
The Vodka Question
Twenty millilitres looks like an afterthought. It does two things: it brings the glass up towards cocktail strength, and it lowers the freezing point of the mixture, which keeps the froth pourable rather than setting.
It should taste of nothing. Gin, a flavoured vodka or grappa starts arguing with the lemon, and the drink stops clearing the palate and becomes a cocktail with sorbet in it.
Other Sorbets
Mandarin sorbet makes a rounder, sweeter version and grapefruit a sharper one, and both are whisked the same way. Lemon stays the standard because it is the sharpest of the three and cuts richness hardest.
For lemon and prosecco served long over ice, try the Limoncello Spritz; for peach and prosecco, the Bellini.
How to Serve It
In a flute from the freezer, whisked to order and drunk while the froth stands. Within five minutes it separates into wine and melted sorbet.
A lemon twist expressed over the top sharpens the nose. Bring it out between the main course and the cheese, or in place of pudding.
Make it at home
The Spirit
VodkaVodka is spirit made from a farmed crop, usually grain or potatoes, distilled and refined so that the taste of that crop is deliberately reduced. Under the retained Regulation (EC) 110/2008 its minimum is 37.5% ABV and it may not be given a predominant flavour, which separates it from flavoured vodka and from gin; our recipes count it at 40%. In a mixed drink it adds strength and body while the other ingredients carry the taste.
More to explore
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Sgroppino?
What does sgroppino mean?
Whisk or blender?
Can I leave the vodka out?
When is a Sgroppino served?
Can I make Sgroppino for a table?
How strong is a Sgroppino?
Sources.
Correct as of 19 October 2026.
- Difford’s Guide, “Sgroppino / Sorbetto” (secondary source: 20ml vodka, 15ml whipping cream, 60ml Prosecco, 2½ scoops lemon sorbet; a hybrid cocktail and dessert often served after meals in Venice; the name from a vernacular word meaning “untie”).
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Limoncello Spritz
A Limoncello Spritz is 50ml of limoncello from the freezer, 90ml of brut prosecco and 30ml of soda water, built over ice in a copa or large wine glass, stirred once and finished with a lemon wheel and a sprig of mint. About 2.4 UK units, taking the limoncello at 28% ABV. It follows the spritz pattern of liqueur, sparkling wine and soda, with a sweet lemon liqueur where the Aperol Spritz has a bitter orange one. That makes the soda and a dry prosecco more important here: they are all that keeps the sugar in check. Limoncello is lemon zest steeped in alcohol, then sweetened, and in southern Italy it is poured ice-cold after dinner. The spritz moves it to the start of the evening.
Bellini
A Bellini is 100ml prosecco over 50ml white peach purée: the purée goes into a chilled flute, the cold prosecco is poured over in stages and folded in, and it is served straight away. About 1.1 UK units. It sits on the IBA’s Contemporary Classics list at these measures. The Oxford Companion says Giuseppe Cipriani, the founder of Harry’s Bar in Venice, created it around 1945, and named it for the fifteenth-century Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini because its peach hue resembled one characteristic of his work. Cipriani’s own Bellini page gives 1948 and says he was inspired by that painter. White peaches decide it. They are paler, more floral and usually milder than yellow ones, and they give the soft blush; yellow fruit makes a sharper drink of the wrong colour.
Mimosa
A Mimosa is 75ml of fresh orange juice poured into a cold flute, then 75ml of cold prosecco added slowly and stirred once. About 0.8 UK units. Those are the IBA’s measures, and the IBA lists an orange twist as an optional garnish. Difford’s Guide, a secondary source, says many books credit Frank Meier at the Ritz in Paris in 1925, though it puts the creation between 1921 and 1923, and the name is commonly said to come from the bright yellow flowers of the mimosa tree; we have found no primary record. The IBA also lists it as Buck’s Fizz. Difford’s defines the Buck’s Fizz as two parts champagne to one of juice and thinks it was created in 1921 by Malachi “Pat” MacGarry, the bartender at Buck’s Club in London. Half the glass is juice, so squeeze it the same day. Carton juice makes a dull Mimosa.
Where this one sits
Recipe by Jerry Can Spirits · Updated 19 October 2026