TOSCANA
Hugo cocktail takes aim at Aperol in UK summer of spritz
Elderflower drink's explosive growth signals shift in Italy's aperitivo export
Costanza Bardi480 wordsEdition №78Sunday, 9 August 2026 — Edition № 78
It is the summer of spritz, and the Hugo is coming for Aperol's crown. British sales figures published by the Guardian this week show the elderflower cocktail enjoying explosive growth, with Campari, Sarti Rosa and limoncello varieties also taking off as the market-leader faces its first serious challenger in years.
The Hugo — a mix of elderflower syrup, prosecco, sparkling water and mint — was born in the mountains of Trentino-Alto Adige in 2005, a regional curiosity that has now crossed the Alps and the Channel. For Tuscany, the drink's rise is more than a bar-room trend: it is a quiet reordering of the aperitivo ritual that anchors the region's hospitality economy.
Prosecco, the Hugo's base, is the essential Italian pour in British bars, but the elderflower variant carries a lighter, more botanical profile that appeals to drinkers seeking something less bitter than Aperol's signature orange. The shift matters in Florence, where the evening aperitivo draws visitors to the city's piazzas and the hillside vineyards of Chianti supply the wine that fills the glasses.
The Guardian's report, based on UK sales data, describes the Hugo as 'snapping at the heels' of Aperol, which has dominated the spritz category since the cocktail's global boom a decade ago. The elderflower drink's growth is part of a broader diversification of the Italian aperitivo abroad, with producers pushing regional variations — limoncello from the Amalfi coast, Campari from Milan, and now the Trentino-born Hugo — to capture distinct slices of the market.
For Tuscan wine estates, the trend cuts both ways. The prosecco that forms the Hugo's base is not a Tuscan product — the DOCG zones lie in Veneto and Friuli — but the region's own sparkling wines, notably the lesser-known Vernaccia di San Gimignano and the Chianti-based rosés, stand to benefit from a British palate newly curious about Italian aperitifs beyond Aperol Spritz. Several Chianti producers have begun bottling their own pre-mixed spritz variations, a development the wine trade press has noted with cautious approval.
The commercial stakes are considerable. Italy's wine and spirits exports to the UK have grown steadily this decade, with sparkling wines leading the charge. The Guardian's figures suggest the Hugo's rise is not a fad but a structural shift in consumer preference, one that could reshape how British drinkers perceive the entire category of Italian aperitifs — a category Tuscany has long used to introduce visitors to its broader wine culture.
There is a mild irony in the elderflower's triumph. The Hugo was invented by a bartender in the South Tyrolean town of Naturno, named for a customer, and for years it remained a local speciality unknown beyond the Dolomites. Now it is the standard-bearer for a globalised Italian drinking culture, served in London bars from Shoreditch to Soho, its botanical profile a perfect match for the British summer's preference for lighter, lower-alcohol drinks.
The season is not over. With August and September still to come, the Guardian notes it is not too late to book a place at the long-table vineyard dinners that have become a Tuscan summer staple — evenings where the spritz, whether Hugo or Aperol, is the ritual opening to a meal among the vines. The cocktail wars may be decided in British bars, but their consequences are felt in the hills of Chianti, where the image of Italy's aperitivo is being remade.