From August 1st, 2009, all Prosecco wine will be safeguarded both within the European Community and internationally, as Denominazione di Origine Protetta.” That’s to say, as of the next harvest, there will be no generic Prosecco: all authentic Proseccos will be either DOC (DOP) or – in the case of the historic areas, Conegliano, Valdobbiadene and Colli Asolani – will be upgraded to DOCG, with the birth of two new DOCGs, the DOCG Conegliano Valdobbiadene and the DOCG Colli Asolani.
Right after the go-ahead on the new project (21st march 09), Zaia – who, by the way, is a fully qualified enologist since 1987 – commented the new denominations “will at last allow us to protect this incarnation of all-Italian quality in a more effective manner, defending its authenticity against fake Proseccos. Thanks to the National Wine DOC Committee’s approval of the Prosecco DOC and the DOCGs of Conegliano Valdobbiadene and Colli Asolani […], we will provide the historic viticultural areas with the guarantee of DOCG denominations, while all other production areas will fall into the DOC appellation: full coverage that will guarantee the future of this great Italian wine, 150-million-bottle strong, against the unfair competition of agro-pirates.”
The Canellas comment as follows: “Starting from the next grape harvest, all Prosecco wine must be DOC and can therefore only be produced in limited areas of northeastern Italy. The new law will put an end to the proliferation of poor-quality Prosecco imitations from nontypical areas, and establishes precise indications of quality and packaging for genuine Prosecco. We shall begin producing our new Prosecco DOC in the last few months of 2009, elevating our current Conegliano DOC to the status of DOCG: the very best of Prosecco production.
Canella, incidentally, is one of just two wineries which, for historical reasons, are allowed to turn Prosecco into sparkling wine outside the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene area. This is because sparkling Prosecco was already a Canella staple back in the 1950s!”
What happens to “Prosecco” grapes grown outside northeastern Italy? It looks like there will be a few exceptions in the Piedmont, where Prosecco has also been vinified in the sparkling version on a major scale for a very long time: according to the regional authorities, 25% of all Prosecco production has been turned into sparkling wine by worldfamous Piedmontese wineries, mostly in the Monferrato area – 20 million bottles a year. Understandably enough, the Piedmont would be conspicuously damaged if the new DOC did not take them into account. As for areas and producers who don’t fall into the
“protected” Prosecco map, the plan is to separate the name of the wine from the name of the grape and vine, which will be called Glera (one ancient synonym for the variety). In other words, if they want to cultivate Glera grapes, fine. Just as long as they don’t bottle Prosecco.
