Prosecco: 25 top bottles and how to taste them

Prosecco is the best-selling Italian wine in the world, and there is no need to wait for the statistics to know that it will be the most drunk wine of the holidays. Even without the need for a toast, it is a must in every aperitif in a spritz, it has become ubiquitous in our lives and crowds the shelves of supermarkets. But if you talk to a sommelier … he turns up his nose. It is not snobbishness, it is that among half a billion bottles produced every year (low estimate), finding a good one is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

But it is possible and indeed a duty because you can really taste something special.
In the gallery above our choices

THE BOOM
The Prosecco production has tripled since 2008 in ten years, that is, since in 2009 this “Italian wine with bubbles” obtained the DOC and DOCG designations. A battle that took place to protect a brand that was beginning to be undermined by competition on an international level: hence the boom. He remembers it well Michele Rimpici, originally from Verona, founder of Cantina Urbana in Milan and at the time Export Manager for Cavit. «In 2008 there was a switch. I was in London and the whole UK went from drinking Spanish Cava to Prosecco.

A wine that until then it was hard to sell, has become a cult. The reasons only at least three: it is italiano, is a vino easy to drink based on an aromatic grape e with an important residual sugar that pleases the masses, and then it has the price. Year after year it has managed to eat market share in the world of the Classic Method: it has invaded the aisles of large-scale distribution and now Prosecco arrives at parties or weddings abroad ». Let’s take a step back.

DO NOT CALL IT ITALIAN CHAMPAGNE
They brush up on the notions of the sommelier course, it is better to clarify first. Prosecco is a wine produced between Veneto and Friuli from glera grapes vinified as a sparkling wine. The method with which the grapes are made sparkling is called Charmant or Martinotti, takes place in large tanks – while Champagne or Franciacorta instead are produced with Chardonnay grapes and the Method called Classico, a process that requires more steps, more time and that takes place in bottle (hence the substantial difference in price). So to be clear then there is no “Prosecco di Verdicchio” and or the “Italian champagne”.

In addition to the basic denomination, Prosecco DOC, which makes large numbers, we can also distinguish the more valuable Prosecco Storico or Conegliano-Valdobbiadene Superiore DOCG, to finish at the top of the pyramid with the Rive produced only in a few particularly suitable areas called precisely “banks”, and finally the Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene Superiore di Cartizze DOCG – the most valuable thanks to the hilly production area, a low yield of the vines and the selection of grapes. The difference, you can feel it.

DIFFERENTIATE AND BECOME PINK
Prosecco therefore is not all the same, and indeed there are those who try at all costs to differentiate themselves and to raise a brand (an image and a price) which today is that of a widely consumed wine, produced industrially aiming to make volumes at low cost. Production grows and for the most part goes abroad, with ever-increasing rates: but not all that glitters is gold. The production area is now saturated with vineyards and every market that is based on low margins and large numbers is hanging by a thread: a new fashion, or an unexpected crisis, is enough to configure a disaster – Moscato d’Asti teaches.

With lucky timing, Prosecco in 2020 has also become rosé, to meet the fashion of rosé wines that is becoming popular all over the world. It is now admitted that 15% of non-glera wine present in the bottles can also be red. But is that the red area? “Once in the Prosecco area they drank a rosé, the Raboso, but then the vines were almost all explanted to make way for the glera” Today, therefore, pinot noir is basically used and success is expected: the Consortium’s sales estimate is of 20 million bottles this year and 40-50 million bottles sold by the end of 2021. It is the new entry of the year, so in the gallery you will find the many novelties for these Holidays that promise rosebud color and notes of strawberry and raspberry.

IN THE BEGINNING IT WAS SMOOTH OR QUIET
«Bubbles are part of a third world which is not that of wine – continues Michele – but a category of its own. It is linked to the concept of party, toast, ceremony. The bubble is a moment of lifestyle, of entertainement: it is a moment to live more than a wine to drink. But the thing about blossoming and the cork jumping, that’s not Prosecco“. What do you mean? «That the Champagne mushroom cap is a modern invention. Until twenty years ago, Prosecco here was a wine that people bottled at home with the crown cap, and it did not have those bubbles we see today, but simply a little sparkling due to the natural fermentation process that took place in bottle. There was no sparkling wine and no bang, that is an invention born on the wave of fashion, celebration, champagne. Indeed, with us Prosecco was drunk “moved” or “still”, which today only survives in the local market ». In fact, from Cantina Urbana his sparkling wine is called El Moss, 100% organic glera, beer cap for € 6.90.

WHAT TO TRY: THE GENERAL RULES
If Prosecco is a mass market with large numbers, there are the historical “prosecchisti” and small producers who do not want to be satisfied and continue to value a product they can be proud of “There are the Valdo, Bisol, Canevel, Collalto, Follador , Adami, Nino Franco, all historical brands that cultivate their vines, have a large portfolio and interesting bottles to drink »explains Michele. Not only do you find more marketing than substance like Prosecchi Millesimati passed off as great specialties – all Proseccos are because this is a wine that does not age and therefore ends up directly in the bottle every year. Also trendy are the Extra Brut or Pas Dosè bottles, which aim for a drier and less sweet product, for more refined palates, it is a pity that the glera grape is a semi-aromatic grape and that its specificity is precisely that of being “sweet” – in fact, prosecco goes better with desserts and aged cheeses rather than with a fish appetizer. On the other hand, the experiments of vinifying glera grapes with the Classic Method, to make the most of them, in purity or with Chardonnay grapes, are fun.

ALTERNATIVE PROSECCHI, OR ORIGINAL PROSECCHI
Last but not least, we must not forget the niche names that do not reach supermarkets and that often still work with the ancestral “colfondo” method, refermented in the bottle and with the yeasts still in suspension «Casa Coste Piane, Costadilà, Marchiori family, Ca ‘del Zago, Gregoletto, Silvano Follador, Adami, Malibran, Nino Franco… Bottles with a history that can also be found in some wine shops, but those for wine lovers a bit hispter, and online ». They have a crown cap or a wine cap tied with string. This is also a fashion? But the beauty of Prosecco is a bit like Lambrusco: it is a pop wine like light music, it is liked, it is cheerful, it is fun. And you can drink interesting bottles by spending very little compared to any other wine ». Our selection, in the gallery.