Think you know Prosecco DOC? Taste again
Updated: Sep 16
There can’t be many wine drinkers who haven’t had a glass of Prosecco. It’s the fizz poured at parties, handed to you on arrival at events and ordered by the bottle for a get-together with friends. We all know Prosecco. Or at least we think we do.
But when did you last actually taste it?
I recently spent two days visiting some of Edinburgh’s independent wine merchants with Neil Phillips, Prosecco DOC Brand Ambassador. We tasted with Andrew Lundy at Vino, Fraser Meadows at Great Grog, Damien Trinckquel at WoodWinters and Romuald Gueret at Drinkmonger, as well as visiting Jamie Dawson at Cork & Cask, Alistair Graham at Communiqué Wines and Graeme Broom at Cockburns of Leith.
Along the way I started asking a question which hadn’t been planned: when did you last taste two Prosecco DOC wines side by side?
The answer was remarkably consistent. Years ago.
These are people who taste wine professionally, yet here was one of the world’s most familiar wines and hardly anyone had recently compared two side by side. Clearly Prosecco’s extraordinary success has also become one of its challenges.
From wine to category
Damien Trinckquel at WoodWinters summed up just how established Prosecco has become. Customers now come into the shop simply saying, “I’ve come to buy a Prosecco.” Fifteen years ago, he explained, you wouldn’t necessarily have found it everywhere or had so many people specifically asking for it. Now it’s something a wine merchant is expected to have on the shelf.
Andrew Lundy at Vino highlighted another part of its success: gifting. Prosecco is a name both the person buying the present and the recipient recognise. It can feel celebratory without moving into Champagne prices, while he also sees growing interest in Prosecco Rosé.
That level of recognition is an achievement most wine regions could only dream about. But there’s another side to it. We’ve become so accustomed to the idea of a glass of Prosecco that we don’t even consider what Prosecco is actually in the glass — who made it, where it came from or what makes it different from the bottle sitting next to it.
Romuald Gueret at Drinkmonger explained this issue perfectly: “We tend to speak about Prosecco only as a Prosecco.”
And there, perhaps, lies the problem.
We don’t expect every Chardonnay, Rioja or Champagne to taste the same. Yet producer, style and individual character can disappear behind that one enormously familiar word: Prosecco.
What made this particularly striking was the wines Neil and I were pouring. They were generally from family-run producers, many of them small, each with its own approach and a great story to tell.
It felt a very long way from the ubiquitous “glass of Prosecco” offered as an enticement to book an event, visit a showroom or come through the door. There’s nothing wrong with that glass, but perhaps it has helped turn Prosecco into shorthand for a glass of fizz, rather than a wine we stop to think about.
Put two glasses next to each other
The answer is wonderfully uncomplicated: taste.
We tasted Brut Nature — zero dosage — and Brut, and just the difference in dosage can make a significant difference, not simply to sweetness but to the aromatics, texture and depth of the wines. And this is before the vineyard or winemaker's magic comes into play.
Even more interesting was comparing Le Contesse Brut Nature and Perlae San Simone Brut Nature. Both are zero dosage, yet strikingly different. San Simone is much more elegant in style, while Le Contesse is richer and rounder.
Everyone tasting these had a definite favourite, yet opinion was split almost exactly 50:50. Two Prosecco DOCs, both Brut Nature, and two very different wines.
At Great Grog, Fraser Meadows preferred Le Contesse, describing it as having “very low dosage, long finish, aromatic, jumps out the glass” and “eminently drinkable”, before adding:
“Certainly up there with any Crémant I’ve had.” He even said off camera that it was the best Prosecco he'd ever tasted!
There was no unanimous winner, but that's what wine is all about — discovering the style you prefer and being happy to like something different to others too.
Romuald also made an interesting point from a retailer’s perspective. Put just one wine from a category on a shelf and it can get lost. Put several together and suddenly you can talk to customers about their differences and the stories behind them — where they come from, how they’re produced and the people who make them.
Rather than making Prosecco more complicated, which is the last thing we want to do, comparisons can make it more interesting and easier to understand.
So, think you know Prosecco DOC?
The fruity, easy-drinking style of Prosecco has enormous appeal; in fact, its accessibility is a large part of its phenomenal success.
The point is that there is more to discover. Different dosage levels, different producers and different styles are all part of the story, as is Prosecco Rosé. Although Prosecco is overwhelmingly associated with Veneto, the DOC also extends into Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
So next time you’re handed a complimentary glass of Prosecco at an event, enjoy it. But don’t let that glass define an entire wine category.
Taste for yourself
And if you want to put comparative tasting into practice, Fizz Feast in Edinburgh on Saturday 28 November is the perfect opportunity. Scotland’s only dedicated sparkling wine festival — and the largest sparkling wine festival in the UK — brings together Champagne and sparkling wines from different producers, countries and styles, alongside artisan food producers.
It’s a chance to have the unique opportunity to taste sparkling wines side by side, compare them and discover for yourself the styles you prefer. With so many different wines under one roof, you'll naturally move beyond simply ordering “a glass of fizz” and start thinking about what you'd like in your glass. And, of course, there will be Prosecco DOC to taste too.
And next time you choose Prosecco…
Next time you’re buying Prosecco DOC, look a little more closely. Look at the producer. Find out who made it. Ask your independent wine merchant about the story behind the bottle. Better still, buy two contrasting bottles and pour them side by side.
This brings me back to the question I asked the trade: when did you last taste two Prosecco DOCs side by side? Even among people who taste wine professionally, the answer was years ago.
And once we did, we found plenty to talk about.
Behind one of the most familiar names in wine are families, individual producers, very different wines and some great stories that many of us have simply stopped looking for.
Think you know Prosecco DOC? Perhaps it’s time to taste again.