I love this period of the year. Plenty of occasion to discover interesting wine and food.

This weekend it’s the time to sample Prosecco: Vino in Villa It is an International Festival that takes place in the Valdobbiadene area from 19th to 21st May in Susegana, Treviso, Veneto.

This year the event will adopt an historical approach starting at the end of the 19th century and will take visitors through the events that succeeded in winning over the world without losing its special identity.

Program here

Interesting reading here

Prosecco rise ‘good for Champagne’ says Lanson

Prosecco’s sales were up by nearly 50% in 2011, the Champagne Category Report for 2011, launched by Lanson International last week, found.

Such success was good for all sparkling wines, Paul Beavis, managing director of Lanson International, told Decanter.com. ‘I think it proves its point as an introducer to the sparkling category. Prosecco’s done a good job in terms of value.’

Read more

(source decanter.com)

Italian wine now 22% of global market

“After a record-breaking export year, Italy now has nearly a quarter of the global wine market, according to the latest statistics.

Prosecco led the charge with a surge in shipments of more than 17% to the US, ISTAT added.

Giovanni Mantovani, director general of Veronafiere, which organises the annual Vinitaly trade fair, said there had been ‘a growth of professionalism’ among Italian producers of all sizes.

‘So, alongside great names, it is now easier to find small producers who are appreciated in restaurants and wine bars around the world,’ Mantovani added.”

(source decanter.com)

An acre of Prosecco worth more than Napa (equal time for the Prosecco consortium) by DoBianchi

This is a follow up on the recent post I read and reblogged on the prosecco debate.

Giancarlo (Giancarlo Vettorello is the Prosecco consortium’s director) contended that while the origins of Prosecco may be humble, it has become one of the world’s most “recognizable wines” and is sold today in mind-boggling volume.

He also pointed out that the Centro di ricerca per la viticoltura (Center for Viticultural Research) was founded in Conegliano — Prosecco’s historic epicenter — in 1923, an innovative and ground-breaking institution and a leader in enology that predates the emergence of the sparkling wine industry in Franciacorta, Trentino, and Oltrepò Pavese. In particular, he noted, Professor Tullio De Rosa, who came to the center in 1966, developed techniques for the vinification of white and sparkling wines that reshaped Italian viticulture for the generation that followed (it’s also worth noting the pantheon of Italian wine luminaries who worked at the center, like Michele Giusti, Giovanni Dalmasso, and Luigi Manzoni).

In all fairness, he has a point. Prosecco is one of Italy’s leading brands and exports — like Campari, Perugina, Barilla, De Cecco. And in a relatively short arc of time, the architects of its success have created an interest and awareness of the brand that was unimaginable in the late 1990s when they began to market Prosecco aggressively to U.S. consumers. I think it’s safe to say that U.S. consumers are more likely to know the name of two Prosecco producers than they are to know the names of two wineries in Chianti (a brand that emerged three centuries ago).

Read more

Prosecco, lies, and videotape: the real story behind the new wave Prosecco

I found this interesting piece on prosecco. It’s a review by Do Bianchi, a blogger I’m following, that comments on Alan Tardi latest article on the NYT, ”Prosecco Growers Act to Guard Its Pedigree” .

(source Do Bianchi)