TheWineCommander

BACKGROUND

Located in the Italian northern regions of  Veneto and Friuli are the hillside vineyards of Valdobbiadene and Conegliano . The vineyard slopes here are so severe they’re nearly vertical, plummeting down hundreds of feet.  It is the original home of what we now know as Prosecco.

Glera is the main grape here and up to a few years ago was also called Prosecco. When the grape was called ‘Prosecco’, anyone in the world could make wine from it and call it Prosecco. However local winemakers, anxious to protect the regions reputation and to stop other wineries jumping on the growing popularity of their unique grape variety successfully lobbied for the grapes name change, making Prosecco a legal protected region – not unlike Champagne .

i suspect few people would buy a sparkling wine called “Glera”. But by its protected name of Prosecco it is the fastest growing sparkling wine style in the world.

The driest Prosecco is labelled ‘Brut’. If you see ‘Extra Dry’ it is confusingly slightly sweeter than Brut. ‘Dry’ Prosecco is the least dry. But whichever, it is best served chilled!

2015 Vigana La Rivetta Cartizze

There are three popular price bands of Prosecco. The lowest level has ‘DOC’ on the label and sits around A$20. The next level is labelled ‘DOCG’ and price wise is usually between A$20 – $35. For the very best Italian look for the word ‘ Cartizze’ which comes from a very tiny area of vineyards. I’ve only found one example of this in NZ and Australia. Look for Villa Sandi 2015 Vigana La Rivetta Cartizze. It’s expensive at $60 though. But wow!

SO WHY BUY PROSECCO?

It is not too expensive, it is fashionable, popular with everyone, goes with everything and can be enjoyed without food. If you enjoy your bubbly with similar needs there is a simple solution – Prosecco.

So why is it so cheap? The method of production is one of the biggest reasons. Rather than rely on the time consuming and laborious method of a secondary, bubble inducing fermentation within the bottle as is done in Champagne, as well as the so called ‘Traditional Method’, Prosecco takes advantage of the much quicker method known as the ‘Charmat Method’. This is where still wines are re – fermented in large reinforced stainless steel tanks and then bottled under pressure to preserve the bubbles. The resulting taste is a bit simpler than Champagne but still complex in flavour.

Champagne and Prosecco have very different taste profiles. The primary flavors in Champagne are citrus, white peach and cherry, almond and toast. Prosecco’s primary flavours are green apple, honeydew, honeysuckle, pear and fresh cream.

The Dal Zotto family in the King Valley are the pioneers of Prosecco in Australia. Family patriarch Otto Dal Zotto turned from tobacco farming to plant the first commercially Prosecco varieties in Australia in 1999, beginning with cuttings from his Italian home town Vaidobbiodene.

Sons Christian and Michael now own the winery and in 2017 sales of Prosecco accounted for 50% of the Dal Zotto business with 40,000 cases distributed across Australia.

Dal Zotto L’Immigrante 2014 Prosecco. Sensational!

Now war has broken out!

Winemakers in the King Valley are banding together in a stance against what they claim is an “unfair” bid by Italy to take away their rights to use the Prosecco name.

Michael along with representatives from Brown Brothers and All Saints have met with federal politicians to put an argument against the European Union, led by Italy, to prevent them from marketing wine with the grape variety Presecco on the label.

They claim this would be devastating, wiping out millions of dollars of marketing and brand building investment by wineries and cutting off the growth prospects of the Australian Prosecco industry.

The trio said that Prosecco is a globally recognised grape variety and that this would be akin to losing the right to use the term Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc.

“This is a cynical move by the Italians to prevent other countries participating in the huge growth opportunities in the domestic and international Prosecco markets,” says Micheal Dal Zotto.

The popular drink would be difficult to market without a proper name, it is claimed. A change of name would cost the industry A$400 million and the loss of hundreds of jobs.

The fact is grape vines from Italy’s Prosecco region were first imported to Australia decades ago, well before the Italians kicked up a fuss in 2009.

A move to further increase the public appetite for Prosecco received a boost early in March  with the announcement of funding to support a marketing and growth strategy by a group called Wines of the King Valley.

The State Government will inject $50,000 of funds by means of a grant to support the King Valleys $100,000 project, which it says is aimed at cementing the region as Australia’s official home of the Prosecco name and brand.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHOULD THE  ITALIANS BE ALLOWED TO KEEP THE NAME PROSECCO FOR THEMSELVES?