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About 100 samples of the bubbly from Prosecco were tasted at the second edition of Prosecco Masters conducted by the Drinks Business. The results indicates that all of them sought freshness, bright fruit, purity and prettiness in the wines, while there were a few which were apparently trying to copy Champagne and scored lower. Prosecco is meant to be fruity and fresh; it isn’t Champagne and therein is its charm. The brut styles were trying too hard to be like Champagne, concurred the judges who were all sparkling wine experts.
However, they agreed that there was less of a perceptible leap in quality from DOC to DOCG than they anticipated. The judges also agreed that the two were closer in character than they had expected. The general feeling as the judges got to tasting the DOCG wines, was that there would be a step up in quality but there wasn’t really, which was disappointing; they expected more from the category. The DOCGs were expected to be richer and more flavoursome, bringing forth the terroir, but it didn’t really happen. Overall, it was the DOC category that surprised and delighted the judges most in terms of the quality on offer for its price point. “Prosecco DOC was the stronger of the two categories – there were a lot of winners in there, particularly for their price thus giving a Bigger Bang for the Buck.”
Cartizze docg did consistently better. The general impression as the judges got to Cartizze was that it was a real step up – you could taste the terroir in the wines. They are better than ever, said one judge.
It was interesting to see that several supermarket doc wines and cooperative wines won Silver in both styles-Brut (0-12 gms/Ltr res sugar) and Extra Dry (12-17 gms per liter) e.g. Lidl UK, Cavit,. Mionetto doc Treviso Brut (imported by Hi-Spirits in India) managed a Bronze in the under £10 category. Val d’Oca is a big co-operative in Valdobbiadene. It’s DOCG extra dry wine received a Master in the £10-20 category.
Masottina winery that I visited in Conegliano during my recent trip to the docg Conegliano area won Gold for the DOC Treviso Brut but managed Silver for the Extra Dry, perhaps indicating the penchant for experts for slightly drier wines. San Simone di Brissotto DOC Brut being imported by Hema into India (their Rose Spumante is extremely popular too), could only manage a Bronze while La Gioiosa, the sister winery of the prestigious Villa Sandi next door, received a Silver Medal for the DOC Treviso. Villa Sandi received Gold for its Valdobbiadene Superiore
Zardetto being imported by FWM in India managed a Bronze for its Prosecco DOC Extra Dry but the DOCG Molin from the same producer won Silver . Similarly Zonin represented in Indian by Aspri got Silver for DOC Cuvee 1821 and a Bronze for the Prosecco DOC from its Ca’ Bolani vineyard in Friuli.
Gold is golden
Bodega Gold was the only expensive Prosecco in the £ 20-30 category that won not only a Gold but the Masters as well. Packaged in a deluxe Gold coloured bottle, it was imported by Mohan Bros. but has not been seen in the market for a while, with the importer claiming it is too high priced to sell.
Prosecco DOC Treviso the winner
Although the Drinks Business article does not clearly mention, the DOC Treviso Proseccos have done better than the doc Prosecco, justifying the contention of most producers in the Conegliano Valdobbiadene classic docg area that historically Prosecco has been made in the province of Treviso and so the best DOC would still be the best value-for-money wines in the region. Many producers buy grapes from this area in order to have a better quality of the DOC wines-further reducing the quality gap between the doc and docg wines by the Prosecco DOC Treviso being in the middle. They would appear to offer the best value-for-money wines.
For the detailed article and the results, visit http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/
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