Know Your Prosecco

Once known primarily as a sparkling wine consumed more at restaurants featuring sparkling wine cocktails at discount prices, Prosecco has moved into mainstream wine production. With more than 150 million bottles produced in northern Italy each year, Prosecco has become big business for producers, distributors and retailers alike.

Most of the prosecco produced today falls into the bubbly Spumante category, with the less effervescent Frizzante making up the rest. Spumante Proseccos are then divided into an almost comically confusing series of three further categories. Brut, the least sweet, or driest type, Dry prosecco, in fact the sweetest style, and finally, Extra Dry, which for some strange reason falls into the middle of the other two classes.

As with all Italian wines, be sure to look on the label for the DOC designation. This ensures the wine was produced according to higher standards and in a designated geographic area with the proper grape production and climate to create a proper and tasty prosecco. Wines with an IGP designation on the label are of a lower standard and while they may have a more attractive price point, know you are buying a wine deemed inferior in quality and standards to a label with DOC on the front.

Unlike other sparkling wines, like Champagne, Prosecco is not a wine that benefits significantly from aging. Its appeal lies in a crisp, fresh snap on the palate, and is almost always best drunk within three years of production. In Italy, it is commonly mixed with fruit juices or in a spritz cocktail, traditionally paired with aperol or a similar aperitif.