PROSECCO —
On tiny pockets of terraced terrain overlooking a bay shared by Italy, Slovenia and Croatia, Milos Skabar is reviving a centuries-old winemaking custom often known as Prosekar, which shares roots with its better-known bubbly cousin, Prosecco.
However this humble fizzy mix, nearly unknown past the Italian port metropolis of Trieste the place it is made on a strip of land between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia, is caught up in a dispute that is about to pop: The makers of Italy’s vastly widespread glowing wine Prosecco are preventing to forestall Croatian winemakers from utilizing the identify Prosek for his or her candy dessert wine.
The handful of Prosekar makers hope to make use of their ties to Prosecco’s birthplace, simply above Trieste, to realize larger recognition for his or her wine however fear their identify is in danger, too.
“Prosekar wine is the unique, as a result of it was born 300 years earlier than Prosecco,” mentioned Skabar, surveying his winery with a port view, the hills of Slovenia a darkish inexperienced line within the distance. “So, it’s the father of Prosekar, Prosecco, Prosek and all the remaining.”
At stake within the battle isn’t solely the sanctity of Prosecco, the world’s top-selling wine, but in addition the European Union’s system of geographical designations created to ensure the distinctiveness and high quality of artisanal meals, wine and spirits, defenders say. That market is price practically 75 billion euros (US$87 billion) yearly — half of it in wines, in response to a 2020 research by the European Fee, the EU’s govt department.
The Italian authorities has pledged to defend Prosecco’s identify, and different makers of protected merchandise with distinct geographic roots, from Italy’s Parmigiano Reggiano cheese to France’s Champagne, are mobilizing because the European Fee prepares to deliberate on Croatia’s petition to label its area of interest wine with the standard Prosek identify.
“The issue for us isn’t that these producers, who make a really small variety of bottles, enter our market. However it’s the confusion it might generate amongst shoppers,” mentioned Luca Giavi, common director of the Prosecco DOC consortium, which promotes Prosecco and assures the standard of wines beneath the EU’s “denomination of managed origin” designation.
Prosecco has annual gross sales of two.4 billion euros ($2.8 billion), most of it exported. “Everybody perceives the state of affairs as a menace to our success,” producer Stefano Zanette mentioned, with worldwide patrons probably not capable of distinguish between the same names.
Croatia argues that the Prosek identify and custom is centuries outdated, predating Prosecco’s protections within the EU system, and that its place as a dessert wine makes it distinct from Prosecco.
“Customers won’t be confused by this,” Ladislav Ilcic, a Croatian member of the European Parliament, mentioned in a latest debate. “Prosek ought to legitimately obtain the protected denomination of origin, and producers ought to have full entry to markets.”
The Brussels-based European Federation of Origin Wines is making ready a quick to help Italy. It believes the European Fee’s resolution to listen to the case has defied its personal battle to get different nations and buying and selling blocs to acknowledge the EU’s system of geographic designations.
The dispute, which shall be determined within the coming months, is more likely to activate Prosecco’s origin story, emanating from the bilingual Italian village of Prosecco close to the Slovenian border above Trieste, the place winemaking as soon as flourished.
It’s right here, say the ethnic Slovene Italians who make Prosekar, that the grape often known as Glera — the idea of each Prosecco and Prosekar — originated.
However moreover frequent etymological roots, Prosekar, Prosecco and Prosek have little in frequent.
Prosecco, made predominantly from the Glera grape, is produced by three consortia spanning 9 Italian provinces in alpine foothills that curve alongside the Adriatic Sea. They put out greater than 550 million bottles a 12 months.
Prosek is a candy wine made in Dalmatia with dried native Croatian grapes, none of them Glera, and could also be purple or white.
Prosekar, alternatively, is an equal mix of Glera and two different grapes, made by fewer than a dozen micro-producers. In many years previous, Prosekar was primarily produced at residence and shared amongst associates, household and neighbors, typically served from ad-hoc taverns in personal homes.
Prosecco makers moved to guard their coveted geographical indication 12 years in the past, after seeing winemakers in northeast Italy lose the appropriate to make use of the label Tocai in a European resolution that protected wines produced in Hungary’s Tokaji area. In Italy, Tocai was merely the identify of the grape selection, with no geographic ties. The choice gutted the makers of Friuli Tocai, who struggled to discover a market with a brand new identify: Friulano.
Each the Italian and Croatian areas tussling over the Prosecco identify shared a historical past of Venetian after which Austro-Hungarian management, spanning the interval when Prosecco migrated northwest, into present-day Italy, and south, alongside Croatia’s Dalmatian coast.
Prosecco defenders say the identify Prosek has by no means been uniformly utilized and got here to imply even a generic type of dessert wine.
Written paperwork hyperlink the village of Prosecco to wine as early because the 1600s and 1700s, when wines had been known as “of Prosecco” to point their village of origin, wine historian Stefano Cosma mentioned. “By the 1800s, it was already a glowing wine,” he mentioned.
In present-day Prosecco, Prosekar winemakers hope that as a result of the EU has included the village itself within the geographic territory for the protected wine, they could have a shot at increasing their marketplace for Prosekar, which they are saying was first made in 1548.
However as a result of their wine has not earned the EU designation, Prosekar producers are banned as a lot as Prosek makers from utilizing their identify. They to this point have not been challenged so long as they do not promote past Trieste, mentioned Andrej Bole, a sixth-generation Prosekar producer.
“We’re outlaws,” Bole mentioned. However “for now, we’re tolerated.”
They’re working with the Prosecco consortium to assist their wine earn the coveted origin insignia, which is awarded with every classic. The query of legally utilizing the Prosekar identify will not be determined till that hurdle is cleared, the top of the consortium mentioned.
“We’ve got to take a look at the European norms,” Giavi mentioned. “However there’s that choice, which we do not thoughts.”
