I love Italy wines

Especially Prosecco!

Prosecco wines are Italy’s most popular sparklers. While it’s often compared to Champagne, it’s made with a different set of grapes and a different winemaking method.

What is Prosecco?

Technically, Prosecco is a sparkling wine that originates from the Valdobbiadene region in Veneto, Italy. The wine is made with Prosecco grapes (also called “Glera”) and made into wine via the Charmat sparkling method, which gives wines approximately 3 atmospheres of pressure. This means Prosecco’s bubbles typically last longer than beer (which has approximately 1.5 atmospheres of pressure) and not usually as long as Champagne (5-6 atmospheres of pressure).

History of Prosecco

When the Romans started expanding their empire in ancient history, they colonized what is now Trieste. This Italian town is on the Adriatic coast near the Karst Plateau and Slovenia’s border. Around 200 BC, the Romans moved in and started the first grapevines in the area. The name Prosecco comes from an ancient village that was in this area. In the 1700s, this wine variation grew in popularity. Producers were able to export to the surrounding Germanic countries and to Venice. Today, the wine is still popular and has been protected since 2009. The protection is supposed to ensure that the wine is of a high quality. Many experts hypothesize that this wine has remained so popular because of its unique sparkling qualities and the fact that it is often cheaper than Champagne. Before 2009, Prosecco was both a wine and a grape. Since then, the white grape has been rebranded as “Glera”, and any wines made outside of the official Prosecco region must go by the name Glera. Officially, Prosecco is now only produced in northeastern Italy in the Veneto and Fruili-Venezia Giulia regions. These regions sit between the Adriatic Sea and the Dolomite mountain range. The mild climate along with the combination of limestone, marl, marine sandstone and clay soils makes this area a very good place to grow the Glera grape. The Prosecco zone is actually split into two smaller zones. The DOCG zone can be found in the hills around Cartizze, Conegliano Valdobbiadene and Il Rive. The wine produced in this area undergoes stricter laws and regulations to ensure that the highest quality of Prosecco is produced. Both the DOC and the DOCG zones regulate the quality of wine that is produced, which is why wine from any other region cannot use the name Prosecco.

Prosecco Taste Is it sweet or dry?

Most Prosecco wines are produced in a dry, brut style. However, due to the grapes’ fruity flavors of green apple, honeydew melon, pear, and honeysuckle, it usually seems sweeter than it is. Even though brut is the most popular sweetness level of Prosecco sold in the market today, you can find styles that are sweeter if you seek them out. Here is how Prosecco is labeled for sweetness: Brut 0–12 g/L RS (residual sugar) – Up to a half gram of sugar per glass Extra Dry 12–17 g/L RS – Just over a half gram of sugar per glass Dry 17–32 g/L RS – Up to 1 gram of sugar per glass By the way, if you haven’t had an Extra Dry Prosecco yet, this style offers a great balance between Prosecco’s fruit, tingly acidity, and subtle sweetness.

❄️ Serve Prosecco❄️

Prosecco should be served cold (38–45 °F / 3–7 °C), and most will agree that the best glass to serve Prosecco in is a sparkling tulip glass. The tulip glass is ideal because it’s tall and slender, which helps preserve the bubbles’ finesse for longer, while the larger bulb at the top helps collect more of the wine’s floral aromas.

Tips On Finding High-Quality Prosecco

Prosecco DOC: The most common quality level of Prosecco which can be made in nine provinces spanning Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions.
Prosecco Conegliano Valdobbiadene Superiore DOCG: Grapes are blended from a smaller, more focused growing area between Valdobbiadene and Conegliano in the hills. These hills are known to produce some of the most concentrated Prosecco wines.
Asolo Prosecco DOCG: Across the river from the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene region you can find another smaller hillside region producing excellent wines with high-quality standards. Wines are labeled Asolo Prosecco on the bottle (and formerly: Colli Asolani).
Prosecco Conegliano Valdobbiadene Superiore Rive DOCG: Wines made from specific communes or vineyards within Conegliano-Valdobbiadene. There are 43 communes that can be labeled as such.
Valdobbiadene Superiore di Cartizze DOCG: A micro-region of just 265 acres just outside of Valdobbiadene (towards the Westside), commonly considered to be one of the finest terroirs for Prosecco in the world.

The classification is visible on the bottleneck.