Well, there's a thing ...

[french frank]

A bottle of organic Prosecco arrived by special delivery today. My name, my house, my stifying.

I sort of had a hunch, and it would seem that there's a link between my electricity supplier, one of its other customers (suppliers of organic wines) and my bottle of wine. £9.40 worth. And I don't spend a lot on electricity, either

[amateur51]

How lovely!

[french frank]

Yes, I googled the name of the company and "free bottle" and it took me to my electricity supplier's website, not the wine company's. They said they were arranging for their customers to get a free bottle if they spent £60 on wine. But I haven't spent anything because I hadn't heard of them.

It may be to do with the government regulations now disallowing certain discounts (mine), so they've sent me a bottle of wine instead Too late if there's a new regulation saying they can't give their customers bottles of wine either.

Anyway, sort of on topic, cava and prosecco are the poor man's champagne, I take it? People seem to serve it up for celebrations these days.

[Barbirollians]

Prosecco has become rather over popular as a lighter sparkling wine . Two problems with it - much of it has become too sweet - the Sainsburys' version for a start ! secondly there has been a considerable extension by the Italian authorities of the land in which it can be sold so there is a lot of cheap Italian swilling about that can now call itself prosecco .

[french frank]

Prosecco has become rather over popular as a lighter sparkling wine . Two problems with it - much of it has become too sweet - the Sainsburys' version for a start ! secondly there has been a considerable extension by the Italian authorities of the land in which it can be sold so there is a lot of cheap Italian swilling about that can now call itself prosecco .

Any preference between cava and prosecco (in the absence of champagne, of course)?

[clive heath]

The best place to enjoy Prosecco is at the far end of the main street in Taormina, Sicily at a restaurant "Nero d'Avola" where you have been given three olive oils to sample prior to your meal with a Cataretto version of Prosecco to help you choose which oil to keep for the meal... .. but Bristol is pretty nice too.

[Barbirollians]

I would prefer Prosecco generally as it is lighter and does not have the earthy taste that some Cava can have - Waitrose sell a sound version that is not too sweet and the Tesco Finest used to be made by Bisol which was also good.

[french frank]

This is the one I received:



I wonder why 'since' is in English. Or is it 'seenchay'?

[amateur51]

I would prefer Prosecco generally as it is lighter and does not have the earthy taste that some Cava can have - Waitrose sell a sound version that is not too sweet and the Tesco Finest used to be made by Bisol which was also good.

The Wine Society does a lovely cava which is more lemony than most - an affordable drink that is lovely taken al fresco in Springtime

https://www.thewinesociety.com/shop/productdetail.aspx?section=pd&pl=&pd=SG1661&pc=&prl=

[jean]

I discovered Prosecco in Italy in the 1990s when I lived in the next valley along from the Piave, the centre of the region where they make it.

A DOC from Treviso is as authentic as you could wish, but I can't explain the 'since'.

[Radio64]

I would've thought that 'prosecco' was one of those IGP protected geographical names or summat.

There was an item on the (Italian) news tonight actually about foreigners (mostly anglosassoni, ehem) abusing the name Barolo I think.

anyways cin cin Frenchie

[jean]

I think it is protected. I was surprised to discover that Prosecco was actually the name of the grape, but now I'm surprised all over again to learn that it isn't any more:

Until the 2008 vintage Prosecco was protected as a DOC within Italy, as Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene, Prosecco di Conegliano and Prosecco di Valdobbiadene. From 2009, this has been promoted to DOCG status. Further to protect the name, an association of traditional Prosecco growers is advocating a protected designation of origin status for Northern Italian Prosecco under European law. Prosecco is, according to an order of the Italian Minister of Agriculture dated 17 July 2009 since 1 January 2010 not the name of a grape variety any more (now to be called Glera), but exclusively a geographical indication. This was confirmed by EG-Regulation Nr. 1166/2009 of 30 November 2009.

I can never understand how they get away with Montepulciano di Abruzzo.

(I can't go on. It's making me homesick.)

[Flosshilde]

The best place to enjoy Prosecco is at the far end of the main street in Taormina, Sicily at a restaurant "Nero d'Avola" where you have been given three olive oils to sample prior to your meal with a Cataretto version of Prosecco to help you choose which oil to keep for the meal... .. but Bristol is pretty nice too.

The piazza in front of the cathedral in Syracuse is a pretty good place, too.

[Radio64]

Anyway it looks as if yours is bona fide DOC prosecco anyway Frenchie.

They're an Italian company although typically they're aiming for the more lucrative export market (hence the use of 'since'), especially with the organic spin.