February 2017

The wine guide
What's in
a name?
to extend the production area of the Prosecco
DOC, which now incorporates most of the north
east of Italy, and at the same time they created a
sub-appellation Prosecco Superiore Conegliano
Valdobbiadene DOCG in recognition of the quality
produced in what was its original area.
This intricate strategy was engineered to
safeguard a successful Italian brand and to
prevent other wine producers in Europe and
around the world from calling Prosecco a
sparkling wine made with the same grape variety
and using a similar method of production.
The plan technically worked and it also increased,
in just a few months, the volume of Prosecco
made as more and more big wineries from north
east of Italy could now start mass-producing it.
Consequently the price lowered, the export
boomed as many markets were now being
penetrating with even more effectiveness.
The only problem is that this was done with a
general detrimental effect on quality and carrying
the risk of uprooting the Prosecco from its original
and best quality area.
Eugenio Ciccerelli on how to
spot a good Prosecco
Prosecco is without a doubt the most famous
Italian sparkling wine.
While Champagne refers to a region in France
from which the appellation and wine take their
name, Prosecco originally was the name of the
grape grown for centuries in the hills between
the two towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene
in the Veneto region.
When Vinarius was looking for a Prosecco to
import in the UK, we did not compromise on the
quality and we chose Sommariva from a small
town (S. Pietro di Feletto) at the hearth of the
Conegliano-Valdobbiadene area, a small artisan
producer that can control the whole process,
from the vineyard to the bottle.
Vinarius is a wine merchant and enoteca located at
536 Roman Road, London, E3.
Not many people know that just a few years ago
and in a very astute move, the Italians were able
to reach an agreement inside the EU, modyfing
the appellation and taking the name not from the
grape variety but from a little unkwown village
called, incidentally, Prosecco, which is located
hundreds of kilometres away in the Friuli region.
The grape was officially renamed Glera: a much
less appealing brand. To do all this, they had
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