Prosecco wines are Italy’s most popular sparklers. While it’s often compared to Champagne, it’s made with different grapes and winemaking method.
As you’ll soon discover, there’s more to Prosecco than affordable bubbles. Learn more about this fascinating sparkler, including how to choose Prosecco, the different styles, the main winemaking region, Valdobbiadene, and what foods to pair with it.
Guide: Explore the delicious world of Prosecco Superiore in the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Wine Region Guide.
“There’s more to Prosecco than affordable bubbles.”
What Is Prosecco?
Technically, Prosecco is a sparkling wine that originates from the Valdobbiadene region in Veneto, Italy.
The wine is made with the Glera grape and made into wine via the Charmat sparkling method, which gives wines approximately 3 atmospheres of pressure.
This means Prosecco’s bubbles typically last longer than beer (which has approximately 1.5 atmospheres of pressure) and not usually as long as Champagne (5-6 atmospheres of pressure).
COMPARE Get more info on Champagne vs. Prosecco.
Prosecco Taste (Is It Sweet or Dry?)
Most Prosecco wines are produced in a dry, brut style. However, due to the grapes’ fruity flavors of green apple, honeydew melon, pear, and honeysuckle, they usually seem sweeter than they are.
Even though brut is the most popular sweetness level of Prosecco, you can find sweeter styles if you seek them out. Here is how Prosecco labels indicate sweetness:
- Brut 0–12 g/L RS (residual sugar) – Up to a half gram of sugar per glass
- Extra Dry 12–17 g/L RS – Just over a half gram of sugar per glass
- Dry 17–32 g/L RS – Up to one gram of sugar per glass
By the way, if you haven’t had an Extra Dry Prosecco yet, this style offers a great balance between Prosecco’s fruit, tingly acidity, and subtle sweetness.
How To Serve Prosecco Wine
Prosecco should be served cold (38–45 °F / 3–7 °C). Most will agree that a sparkling tulip glass is best for serving Prosecco. It’s tall and slender, which helps preserve the bubbles’ finesse for longer.
The Perfect Mimosa Wine
If you love brunch, Prosecco is our favorite pick for a perfect mimosa. The fruitiness in this wine amplifies the citrus flavors of the orange juice, and it bodes well with brunch-style foods. By the way, a great mimosa is two parts sparkling wine and one part juice.Â
Pairing Food With Prosecco
Prosecco is surprisingly versatile and pairs well with a wide range of cuisine genres and dishes. It’s a wine you can serve as an aperitif (before food) but also works well alongside the main entrée.
The ideology behind pairing Prosecco is to use it as a palate cleanser alongside medium-intensity foods (chicken, tofu, shrimp, or pork dishes). Because of its sweet aromatics and bubbles, Prosecco matches well with spicy curries and Southeast Asian fare such as Thai, Vietnamese, Hong Kong, and Singaporean cuisine.
Tips On Finding High-Quality Prosecco Wine
- Prosecco DOC: Prosecco’s most common quality level, which can come from nine provinces spanning the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions.
- Prosecco Conegliano Valdobbiadene Superiore DOCG: A blend of grapes from a smaller, more focused growing area between Valdobbiadene and Conegliano in the hills, which produce Prosecco wines with high concentration.Â
- Asolo Prosecco DOCG: Across the river from the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene region, you can find another smaller hillside region that produces excellent wines with high-quality standards. Wines are labeled Asolo Prosecco on the bottle (formerly Colli Asolani).
- Prosecco Conegliano Valdobbiadene Superiore Rive DOCG: Wines made from specific communes or vineyards within Conegliano-Valdobbiadene. There are 43 communes that can be labeled as such.
- Valdobbiadene Superiore di Cartizze DOCG: A micro-region of just 265 acres just outside of Valdobbiadene (towards the Westside). Many consider this to be one of the finest terroirs for Prosecco in the world.
DID YOU KNOW? Col Fondo is a rare, natural Prosecco
Where Prosecco Wine Is Made
The Conegliano-Valdobbiandene region is a stunningly beautiful set of green hills covered with vineyards. It rains quite a lot here, and, as a result, the best vineyards are generally on southern-facing slopes with good drainage and gentle winds that dry the grapes out after their daily shower. Prosecco has a history here of around 300 years (although earlier styles were likely less bubbly).Â
If you have an adventurist streak, one of the region’s highlights is the fun-and-challenging Gran Fondo Prosecco cycling race, which weaves up through the hills. Anyone can participate, and you can celebrate your win with the region’s wine.