As I sit here working outside a cafe in a quiet “village” near California’s Lake Tahoe during a record breaking heat wave, I am drinking an iced espresso–with too much ice and not great espresso– and I remember all the bustling cafes I visited in Rome, Verona, Venice, and Bologna, the fun street scenes, and what they had in common: delicious colorful Prosecco spritzes made with Aperol, Campari, limoncello and other local appertivos served with snacks. How to create that experience back home? That’s what Sue Hill and I worked on last week in advance of Prosecco Week this week beginning yesterday July 17 and continuing until Sunday– plenty of time to get your Prosecco on!

So what is Prosecco exactly? Made from the glera grape in Veneto, a northern region of Italy in the hills and mountains near Venice, Prosecco is a bubbly beverage made using the Charmat or tank method (as opposed to bubbles made in the bottle). As explained in this visual essay on Instagram by Meg Maker for the Consorzio di Tutela del Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG, in 1895 Federico Martinotti invented a method which transforms still wine made from glera grapes into Prosecco. Further refined by fellow Italian enologist Tullio de Rosa, the method is used today to create Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG, Prosecco DOC, and other sparkling wines as well.

In Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG, the steep terrain requires intense manual labor to grow glera and harvest the grapes while Prosecco DOC’s gently hilly region is much easier. To make Prosecco, Glera grapes are pressed then fermented in a chilled stainless steel tank for a few weeks before moving to a second tank called an “autoclave” where fresh yeast and sugar or grape must kicks off a second natural fermentation and the autoclave traps the carbon dioxide gas which makes the wine bubble with five bars of pressure. Prosecco Superiore ages for 40–60 days to develop complexity, then bottled.

More about this DOCG and other glera wines this week with photos and more from Bianca Vigna, a Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG winery that I visited in June 2023.

To start our celebration of Prosecco Week 2023, Sue came up with two cocktails and a menu to pair with Prosecco or Prosecco based cocktails that are fresh and inviting for summer. While many cafes in Italy relied on basic spirits combined with Prosecco, I was most intrigued with those venues with cocktails which featured smaller, locally made spirits (check my Instagram for more). This inspired Sue to feature our local distillery, Ventura Spirits, in her cocktails made with two Prosecco DOC wines.  

While here on Wine Predator we are mostly all about WINE and food and wine pairings and wine travel, we do appreciate and write about SPIRITS. Last summer (because SUMMER!~) we did cocktails with Ventura Spirits and Sideyard Shrubs and here we wrote about cocktails with Italian spirits. And oh my this Waterford Whisky from Ireland that’s organic and biodynamic…:

Prosecco DOC Wines

• Piera Marteliozzo 1899 “Blu Giovello” Prosecco DOC
• Famiglia Zonin “Cuvee 1821” Prosecco DOC

Prosecco DOC Cocktails 

• Cocktail with Piera
  • 1/2 shot Ventura spirits amaro, 1/2 shot Ventura spirits Limoncello and 100 ml San Pellegrino citrus flavored Tonica, fill the glass with procsecco and garnish with Meyer lemon and mint. 
• Cocktail with Zonin
  • 1/2  shot Ventura spirits amaro,  1/2 shot Ventura spirits pixie-cello and 100 ml San Pellegrino Chinotto, top with Zonin prosecco and garnish with basil,  tangerine, and  cherry.

Menu for Prosecco

• Watermelon Mint Salad 
• Potato Chips 
• Cantaloupe and Prosciutto with Balsamic Drizzle 
• Assorted grilled fruit on top of ricotta cheese, toasted walnuts, honey drizzle
• Cheese board
  • truffled pecorino
  • salami
  • proscuitto

NV Piera Marteliozzo 1899 “Blu Giovello” Prosecco DOC

ABV: 11%
SRP: under $20
Grapes: Glera
Importer: Trivin Imports Inc. 
Sample for my review.

Love the easy screw top and pretty blue bottle making it a wine for travel! Take it to a pool, a picnic, or a Shakespeare play in the park. Romeo and Juliet anyone? (Yes we tried to visit THE spot in Verona — Juliet’s House aka Casa di Giulietta but it was closed when we got there!) Or do you prefer the Merchant of Venice? Here’s a few of Shakespeare’s plays set in Italy to inspire you!

Appearance:  Lemon yellow, largish bubbles

Aroma: Chamomile, white flowers, daisy pollen, black pepper, fennel 

Palate: Easy drinking and enjoyable, lemon, a bit of black pepper, florals, indiscriminate fruit, fennel on the finish. Enjoy on its own or use as a base for a cocktail. 

Prosecco Pairing: Hello potato chips! Very nice with the watermelon salad — it loves the mint in the salad. Not great with our cantaloupe which was perplexing because it loved the watermelon salad so much. The truffled pecorino overwhelmed the wine a bit. Proscuitto is so salty with the wine.

Cocktail Pairings: This cocktail is cleansing and refreshing and could work at the beginning or the ending of a meal. Sweet, bitter, bitters and fruit is fantastic with the cantaloupe and proscuitto appetizer. Very nice with the watermelon salad which would be even better if it had a bit of feta cheese in it. Loves the peppery notes of arugula. 

NV Famiglia Zonin “Cuvee 1821” Prosecco DOC

ABV: 11%
SRP: under $15
Grapes: Glera
Importer: Zonin USA
Sample for my review.

This wine is so easy to find!

Appearance:  Lemon, pale lemon, large bubbles.

Aroma: Almond, fennel, chamomile, meadow grass, cola (really!).

Palate: Cola, lemon, lime, fennel. 

Prosecco Pairing: Great with potato chips, loves the salt cured olives, perfect with the truffled pecorino, fantastic with the cantaloupe  and procuitto loving the fresh mint, parsley and basil, responds to saltiness nicely. the mint in the watermelon salad makes this a great pairing. All the salty foods really freshen up the wine. Salt and prosecco work so nicely together. 

Cocktail Pairings: The cocktail was very rich and flavorful and fun of orange explosion, works nicely with the watermelon salad loving the mint in the salad. Works perfectly with the fruit bruschetta and is enhanced by the toasted walnuts. The salt and pepper on the bruschetta enhanced everything in the dish and went perfectly with the cocktail. The herb garnish was important to the flavor profile in the cocktail and the dish which worked so well together. Everything was sweeter with this cocktail and very dessert like. 

Happy Prosecco Week! How will you celebrate? Stay tuned for more ideas!