Each Saturday, David Brenner of Villasfor2 in Abruzzo selects a delicious, top-value 'Everyday Italian Wine’ for you to try at home - or enjoy on your Abruzzo vacation !

Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene. 'Vigne dei Dogi'.
One of the nicer aspects about eating-out in the Veneto region - the area of north-east Italy that includes Venice, Padua and Verona - is that any meal will be preceded with an appetite-whetting glass of Prosecco. Appearing almost automatically and usually on the house. As for the rest of Italy, Prosecco still remains the most popular  pre-lunch/dinner aperitif, while a request for 'un bicchiere di Prosecco' - 'a glass of Prosecco' - in any bar will provide you with a better instant pick-me-up or antidote to a scorching summer's day than anything else ever can. Italians may argue endlessly about which regions - usually their own - produce the best red or white. But there's never any argument about Prosecco. It's quite simply Italy's favourite fizz.

And if you look for a bottle of Prosecco labelled as being produced in the area between the towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene - to the north-west of Treviso in the heartland of Prosecco production - it'll be a reasonable guarantee you're getting the real deal.

'Vigne dei Dogi' is produced by the Marca Vini e Spumanti co-op in the Treviso area and you won't find a more typical or delightful Prosecco at this giveaway price of €4.90. Pop the cork and inhale a beguiling floral bouquet. In the glass, it's the palest gold, with the tiniest of tiny bubbles streaming to the surface of your glass. The taste is soft and lemony with maybe a hint of sherbert in those bubbles fizzing away on your tongue.

It's absolutely delicious and vice-free. And if there's one wine that's meant to be sipped on its own, this is surely it. If you absolutely must nibble something alongside, make it a perfect white peach. Better yet, blitz the peach in a blender, add a splash of Prosecco and you have that ultimate Venetian indulgence - the Bellini !  

You may well find bottles of Prosecco labelled as 'Cartizze'. This denotes a sort of Prosecco-plus, again from the Coneglio-Valdobbiadene area. This is a lot more expensive; a little more refined; and a degree or so stronger. Which surely this misses the point. Prosecco should be drunk young, fun and frothy. It should be as light as an angel's kiss and a little less alcoholic. At 11%, 'Vigne dei Dogi' is spot-on. Any stronger; any heavier; any older and it loses something of that freshness and vitality that typifies a good Prosecco.

Don't be bewildered by the 'VSQPRD' tag on this - and other - bottles. It stands for 'Vini di Qualita' Prodotti in Regione Delimitata' and simply means 'good wine produced in a specific area'. That it's also DOC rather labours the point. And don't waste too much time looking for a grape blend on this - or most other - back labels. Prosecco can include a blend of up to 15% Pinot Gris; Pinot Blanc or Verdiso. Or it can simply be 100% Prosecco grape. I prefer the latter.

At A Glance…

• This week's featured wine: Prosecco di Coneglio-Valdobbiadene. 'Vigne dei Dogi'
• Producer: La Marca Vini e Spumanti, Oderzo
• Designation: DOC
• Grape: 100% Prosecco
• Strength: 11% vol
• Closure: Cork/Wire
• This bottle cost: €4.90

You can find out a lot more about Prosecco here - or take a look at the local Consorzio's own terrific dedicated site.

If you like Italian wine, why not check out last week's 'Everyday Italian Wine' - and bookmark this site for future weekly posts.

(Click on pictures in text for larger images) 

Next week: A triple tasting of Abruzzo 'Cerasuolo' - the region's trademark Rose

Abruzzo vacation, Everyday Italian Wine, Prosecco

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 15th, 2008 at 6:42 am and is filed under David's 'Everyday Italian Wine', Eating and Drinking, Vineyards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.