What Is the History Of Prosecco?
Prosecco gets its name from the village of Prosecco in Friuli in northeastern Italy. Wine from the area has been called “prosecco”or some variation for at least 400 years. Early proseccos were ancestral method sparkling wines that were sweet and low in alcohol, similar to Asti, another popular sparkling Italian wine.
The Charmat method, invented around the turn of the twentieth century, allowed prosecco producers to make more consistent sparkling wine on a larger scale than before. As the technology was adopted, prosecco production went up and quality improved dramatically.
Glera, the main grape used to make prosecco, was called “prosecco” until 2009, when it was renamed as part of the creation of the Prosecco DOC. The DOC area was significantly larger than the classic production zone for the wines, and critics were worried that quality would suffer. For this reason, some areas in the classic production zone were elevated to DOCG status. International prosecco consumption has grown rapidly since the introduction of the Prosecco DOC, making it one of the wine world’s biggest success stories.
