Page 61 - Demo

are over 3,364 grape growers in the region, farming a total of 7,549ha who work with 438 co-operative wineries. The region also has 178 producers.
Prosecco as a wine style, rst became popular in the 1970’s in Germany, a country with a long tradition of sparkling wine consumption. The popularity of Prosecco then spread to America both North and South with Brazil one of the biggest markets for their wines. The Far East too is proving to be a boom market for Prosecco producers as the lighter style of sparkling wine is an extremely good match for Asian and Japanese foods.
The global nancial meltdown sparked the Prosecco phenomenon. During the boom times consumer got a taste for drinking bubbles, when austerity hit and belt tightening was de rigeur, the arrival of Prosecco was a game changer.
Prosecco, almost unknown 12 years ago is now the sparkling wine of choice at many family focussed celebrations such as weddings, christenings, graduations, etc. This value Italian sparkling wine, is fruity and light is now the drink of choice for those in the market for the “pop” factor.
Recent gures show that Prosecco are currently driving the sparkling wine category in the UK, sales of Prosecco increased by +17% in 2017. Another interesting fact comes courtesy of the Consorzio Tutela Prosecco DOC. The Consorzio, a private company, represents the interests of a number of Prosecco producers. Last year they conducted a marketing survey on 8 million UK consumers, the results showed that 56% of Prosecco purchases make in the UK retail sector are by men. Globally sales of Prosecco are expected to reach 400+ million bottles by 2020. In the same year, UK sales are expected to increase to 8.3 million cases.
The success of Prosecco as a sparkling wine category shows no sign of abating, the category
is about to expand with the introduction of a brand new wine style, Prosecco Rosé. This year on May 9th, the Prosecco DOC Consorzio agreed to change the wine law to allow producers to make Rosé wine by mixing the white Glera grape with
a maximum of 15% Pinot Noir to create Prosecco Rosé as a DOC wine. The category will only be allowed for the fully sparkling “spumante” style and not for the frizzante style. The “frizzante” style with less pressure that is sealed with a string rather than a wire muselet is also due to be phased out of production within the next few years.
Prosecco producers worth taking a look at include:
BISOL
The house of Bisol is one of the region’s historic names and this family owned estate has been making wine since 1542. Originally from Treviso the family worked for generations in the region as viticulturists. They founded their modern winery in 1875 and were one of the rst companies to specialise in the production and selling of wines made from their own vineyards. The Bisol family now own 50 ha of vineyard in the regions making them one of the biggest landowner, which means they have total control over their winemaking from vineyard to fermentation. As a result, they are considered to be one of the top producers in the region.
As well as owning a signi cant amount of vineyard land, the Bisol family also have 16 of the cru vineyards, which means they can specialise in the production of single vineyard wines. The most famous of the cru vineyards in the region is Cartizze a special vineyard area on a hill of red sandstone overlooking the town of Valdiobbiandene that yields the best and most expensive wines from the region. This is where Bisol farm the grapes for their premium wine “Superiore di Cartizze” Brut.
They key to quality of the Bisol wines lies not only in the base wine but also in their production method. The consistant quality of their wine is achieved by the blending of three different still wines each from the same Prosecco grape but each vini ed in a different way. The fourth component to the blend is either a small percentage of Chardonnay or Pinot Bianco .
The different fermentation styles are Traditional (standard fermentation of clean must at a low temperature in stainless steel tanks), Battonage (cap left in situ and stirred for higher alcohol content), Arabile (traditional style of Prosecco fermentation where the fermentation goes dormant in winter and re-starts when the temperatures rise in Spring). A typical blend would consist of 50% traditional ,25% Battonage, 20% Arabile and 5% Chardonnay or Pinot Bianco.
The resultant wine is more complex with the blending process cutting out vintage variation and giving consistency of style. The blended still wine is then fermented for a second time in a large tank and bottled under pressure immediately prior to dispatch.
BOTTEGA GOLD
Bottega is a family owned company located in Bibano, Treviso (45 km North of Venice). Bottega is a third generation business, led by Barbara, Sandro, and Stefano Bottega. Their premium Bottega Gold Prosecco with its distinctive Gold Bottle, which incidentially they have a patent for, has just been awarded a Gold Master Medal at the 2018 Prosecco Masters competition organized by Drinks Business for the second time. The wine is made from hand-picked grapes and must obtained is fermented in for nearly 40 days, at about 15°. · Chef
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