Why Italian winemakers are fighting to banish ‘prosecco’ from your wine collection

Head to the wine section of most supermarkets in Europe and you’ll find plenty of bottles of sparkling white wine labeled “Prosecco.” It can be as cheap as €5 or cost upwards of €15.

In the early 2000s, good marketing, a strong push by British importers and a relatively low price brought Prosecco onto the international wine scene.

By 2022, 81.2% of Prosecco bottles were exported internationally, according to data from the Prosecco DOC Consortium.

During the initial boom of Prosecco, the Italian government extended the “Controlled Designation of Origin” (DOC) to cover the remote village of Prosecco (after which the wine is named) in order to establish geographical exclusivity.

Although this boosted the region’s claim to wine, it meant a huge expansion in production and uncertainty when it came to quality.

Marketing campaigns still try to portray Prosecco production as a low-yield, high-quality rural production in the rolling hills of the Veneto region. But in reality, much is produced on an industrial scale from vineyards up to 100 kilometres away from the “Prosecco hills” of Valdobbiadene.

Producers have tried to make consumers aware of the diversity of quality. But with site names like Conegliano Valdobbiadene and the vague EU grades DOC and DOCG (the stricter designation of “controlled and guaranteed origin”), it’s hard to communicate.

Instead, consumers have understandably come to use the easy-to-pronounce catch-all term “prosecco,” which has now become synonymous with an affordable, often low-quality product.

For this reason, some winemakers have now taken the radical decision to remove the term “Prosecco” from their labels altogether. Instead of focusing on the type of wine, they want to emphasize the soil and method of production.

In 2019, 450 million bottles of Prosecco were produced in the DOC region, which is mostly flat, while 90 million bottles were produced in the mountainous DOCG region.

Winemakers want to highlight the influence of the steep slopes of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene on the product.

Col Vetoraz winery, which produces Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superior DOCG, removed the “prosecco” identifier from its labels several years ago.

“We believe that the current state of the Prosecco system is oppressing the Conegliano Valdobbiadene community,” Loris Dal Acqua, the company’s director and winemaker, told WineNews.

“As Colonel Vitoraz, we have made this choice permitted by the regulations to make it clear to consumers, and to focus exclusively on Valdobiadine, which, in our opinion, is the only true regional expression.”

The Valdobbiadene Association, a group of wine experts and wine industry leaders that promotes DOCG, is also considering a proposal to drop the term “Prosecco” from the DOCG category altogether.

“We are investigating the loss of awareness among consumers regarding the distinction between different origins,” added Dal Aqua, a member of the association.

The Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG seems to be aiming for a similar result.

Speaking to DrinksRetailing earlier this year, company director Diego Tomasi said the authority wanted to come up with a shorter name for the product.

“Our name is long and not easy to remember, so we are now discussing one name – maybe Conegliano Valdobbiadini, or maybe CV – and we will find a solution before the end of 2024,” he said.

Tomasi also referred to the discussion around the inclusion of the term “prosecco” as “a very big challenge for the future.”

“We cannot forget Prosecco because it opens the way,” he said. “We have another necessity now – to separate Conegliano Valdobbiadene from regular Prosecco.”

“And then we put Prosecco on the back label, which is probably not a big deal,” he added.