This Christmas we received a case of Prosecco and very grateful we are too. In these days of austerity when we all have to tighten our belts it seems that we are eschewing the delights of the traditional celebratory drink, champagne, for the Italian alternative. Even in the South East we are baulking at the prospect of paying £175 for a bottle of 2004 vintage Cristal champagne, as offered at our local pub on the New Year’s Eve.
Tesco has reported that it expected to shift over 250,000 bottles of the hooch in the run up to New Year and that sales over the Christmas period had increased by 70%. So popular is the Italian wine that it accounts for 25% of all sparkling wines sold and, if you exclude champers, 50%. And there is more good news for Prosecco aficionados – 2013 saw another bumper harvest so there should be even more available.
Produced from the Glera grapes, Prosecco is produced in the Italian regions of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Guili and is a sparkling white wine with a distinctive dry or extra dry taste. It wasn’t always so. Until the mid-1960s it was a rather sweetish wine, barely distinguishable from Asti but improved production techniques have changed it into the high-quality dry wine that we now know and love. It is thought that Prosecco is the successor of one of the famous wines of the Roman era, the Pucinian wine, whose qualities were celebrated by Pliny the Elder and whose medicinal qualities the emperor Augustus’ wife, Julia, swore by.
Although it is seen as a champagne substitute, the production methods associated with Prosecco are radically different. The Charmat process involves a secondary fermentation of the wine in stainless steel tanks or steel vessels covered with vitreous enamel rather than in individual bottles. The wine is then bottled under pressure in a continuous process. This method of production means that the wine can be bottled and sold much more quickly than the French champagne and gives the Italian hooch a distinct price advantage.
Because Prosecco does not ferment in the bottle, unlike champagne, it grows stale with time and should be drunk as young as possible and within three years of its vintage – there is no risk of this not happening at Blogger Towers! And unlike most sparklers, Prosecco has a relatively low alcoholic content – generally around 11 to 12 per cent by volume – and unlike its French rival which is known for its rich taste and complex secondary aromas, it has intense primary aromas meaning that it tastes light, fresh and comparatively simple.
There is a still variant of Prosecco – known as calmo or tranquillo – but it is rarely exported and makes up just 5% of the overall annual production of over 150 million bottles.
All that has made me thirsty – excuse me while I open another bottle. Cheers!
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