Prosecco

Prosecco is an Italian wine, generally a dry sparkling wine, made from a variety of white grape of the same name. The grape is grown mainly in the Veneto region of Italy, traditionally in an area near Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, in the hills north of Treviso.

This wine is becoming a substitute for Champagne and is also known under the names of ghera, glera, grappolo spargolo, prosecco balbi, prosecco bianco, prosecco tondo, proseko, sciorina and serprina.

Up until the 1960s, Prosecco sparkling wine was generally sweet-ish and barely distinguishable from the Asti Spumante wine produced in Piemont. Since then, production techniques have improved, leading to the high-quality dry wines produced today.

It is mainly produced as a sparkling wine in either the fully sparkling (spumante) or lightly sparkling (frizzante, gentile) varieties. Prosecco spumante, which has undergone a full secondary fermentation, is the more expensive variant. The sparkling variants may contain some Pinot bianco or Pinot grigio wine.

Depending on their sweetness, proseccos are labeled “brut” (up to 15 g of residual sugar), “extra dry” (12-20 g) or “dry” (20-35 g). Compared to other sparkling wines, Prosecco is low in alcohol, about 11 to 12 percent by volume.

Tasting Prosecco

The flavor of prosecco has been described as intensely aromatic and crisp, bringing to mind yellow apple, pear, white peach and apricot. Appreciated for its rich taste and complex secondary aromas, most Prosecco variants have intense primary aromas and are meant to taste fresh, light and comparatively simple.