National Prosecco Day – time to book that bottomless brunch and get sipping on our favourite Italian bubbles. This is a big push at Winetraders (prosecco, not bottomless brunch), as we think premium prosecco deserves more love and attention. That being said, sales outside of Italy have been slowly creeping up since the late 90’s with a huge surge in popularity from 2008 that continues to this day – in 2023, it was crowned the best-selling sparkling wine in the UK.
It couldn’t be national prosecco day at Winetraders without a due to nod to Paulo Zucchetto. Eons ago the river Piave carved an elegant escarpment from the limestone foothills of the Dolomites. The finest Prosecco vineyards are to be found on these steep, south-facing slopes.
The vast majority of Prosecco is humble DOC status and is produced from vineyards grown on plains far to the south. Paolo Zucchetto and his son, Carlo, farm just 5.5 ha of vineyards in the heart of the Valdobbiadene DOCG and also have holdings in the prestigious Cartizze Cru. This patch is one of Italy's most expensive terroirs, where land costs over one million euros per hectare and grapes sell for four times the price of other DOCG vineyards. With just 107 hectares there are 140 owners, a stark contrast to the 28,000 hectares of DOC Prosecco further down.
Saluti!
Jul
27