Prosecco: hard graft

Hamish Smith travels to the Prosecco Hills and finds that, while the Italian sparkler is outselling champagne, its bubbles don’t necessarily reach the top

Conegliano Valdobbiadene. Not easy to say, is it? Well, according to the winemakers who spend 1,000 hours a year toiling in the prosecco hills, it’s not easy to make the stuff either. 

Most consumers don’t know their pain. So far it is the lesser classification of the prosecco region – the DOC, not the DOCG – that has won their hearts. The DOC’s proliferation over the past five years since the growing area was redefined is now what the wine is best known for. It is value-for-money, accessible, fruity sparkling wine.  

But what of the higher-grade DOCG, from the 15 hillside villages around Conegliano and Valdobbiadene? These complex wines of higher acidity and structure are prosecco’s golden standard, from which the region’s reputation first emerged and on which its future credentials as a high-end wine hinge. With DOC making up the majority of the 306m bottles reportedly sold last year (champagne was 304m bottles), it is possible the DOCG’s identity has been lost in the crowd. To your average supermarket consumer at least, the difference between DOC and DOCG is an extra letter in the name and digit on the price tag.

In 2009 Conegliano Valdobbiadene was upgraded from DOC to DOCG because a new DOC was marked out from the planes in the surrounding Treviso region. This was a progressive move as, for years, wines from across Italy had masqueraded as prosecco, throwing up wide-ranging qualities and styles and often damaging the wine style’s reputation.  

The new DOC drew a line around the areas that could rightfully be seen as sharing some of the qualities and production standards of the original Prosecco Hills of Conegliano Valdobbiadene. A quality control was also formed and the result was an affordable, consistent sparkling wine that would one day be sold in its hundreds of millions of bottles. 

The solution posed an unexpected problem. “Now we can see that the quality of prosecco has improved for everyone, so I’m not worried about the DOC’s expansion. What I am worried about is the consumer does not know the difference between DOC and DOCG. This is a threat,” says Giancarlo Vettorello, director of Consorzio di Tutela del Prosecco di Conegliano Valdobbiadene, which runs the DOCG, independently of the DOC’s Consortium.  

But firstly, what are the differences between the wines? Irene Patruno from Bottega, which produces wines across the DOC and DOCG, explains: “The Glera grapes by which the prosecco DOCG are produced, grow only on the hilly area stretched between the towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadenne. In this area, thanks to the particular soil, climate, sun exposure, the hand-picked care of the vines and the hand-made harvest, the grapes have different characteristics and the wine is – accordingly – different for scents, flavours and texture.”

In marketing parlance, DOC is considered premium (at £6-£10) and DOCG super premium (£10+). The difference in price reflects the difference in production standards. “We need our work to be valued or there is no point in doing what we are doing,” says Vettorello.  

On the flat plains of the DOC, around 100-150 hours of work is all that is needed to produce the wine, where as in Conegliario, where the hills allow only semi-automation, the workload is more like 300-600 hours. 

In the vineyards that festoon the steep hills of Valdobiadenne – particularly the wine’s flagship Cartizze hills – we are almost talking right angles, so a vintage can take up to 1,000 hours. Everything is by hand.

The production regulations for the two appellations are clear. The DOC yields 180 tonnes per hectare on its 20,000ha land, and the older vines of the DOCG are limited to 120 tonnes per hectare from 6,000ha. But what is abundantly obvious to the producers working the vines – or to the visitor who sees the binary landscapes – is not so obvious to the consumer. For prosecco, perhaps more than any other wine, the consumer relationship is all important.  

“The most interesting aspect of prosecco’s success over the past few years is that it has been a consumer-led revolution rather than a category invented by the trade,” says Cristina Follador of the DOCG prosecco winery, Follador. 

“This is still an early phase in the history of prosecco. Over the next few years consumers will increasingly appreciate different quality segments in the prosecco market, but it is up to premium quality producers such as Follador to educate and inform both trade and consumers.” 

“There needs to be a long-term education programme involving PR/tastings/advertising but, most of all, international brand building by those producers who specialise in the DOCG sector. Consumers trust prestige brands to deliver quality and value regardless of the price,” says Follador.

It’s fair to say that much of the old guard of wine writers didn’t see the prosecco boom coming. Journalists seemed to be playing catch-up to prosecco – coverage was in reaction to the trend rather than ahead of it. Even at last year’s biennial International Sparkling Wine Symposium, many commentators and producers seemed to define quality sparkling exclusively by the cool-climate style – a blueprint laid down by the champenoise.  

But for prosecco to take its next step – building the reputation and value of its DOCG wines – the trade’s understanding and communication will be all-important. 

It starts with the DOCG’s consortium, which has a limited budget but concentrates its resources to a handful of the DOCG’s 80 export markets, namely Germany, Switzerland, the UK and the US. Increasingly China and Canada also take up a share of its time. At present only 43% of the region’s DOCG wines sell abroad.

In Italy, the two grades of prosecco are much better understood. While the word ‘superiore’ is often used to underline DOCG superior status on exports, Italians can also get their tongues and heads around Conegliano Valdobbiadene. For many producers of international products, there is an eagerness to spread distribution to mitigate dependency, but the feeling among the DOCG consortium is that the 43/57 split is about right. “A wine is only great if is appreciated in its own country,” says Vettorello. 

With international distribution of DOCG wines relatively fixed and no plans to extend production (for reasons of geography, not to mention geology), the strategy is to build value. “In the past 20 years we did grow volume but, since 2009, everything has changed and we have been growing value instead,” says Vettorello. “Now we are not looking to expand but we are looking for markets that will pay more. Last year we grew value 10% in the UK.”

Understanding the product

Matteo Bisol of the Bisol winery, which is known for its DOCG wines, says that for differentiation the word ‘superiore’ is important in convincing consumers to understand the product – and pay more for it. “It’s difficult to be a quality prosecco producer because we have to convince people to spend more. It’s a big challenge but we think prosecco can reach a higher quality level. There are very good proseccos at £15-£20.”

If prices head north, prosecco DOCG wines will brush shoulders with champagne brands that seem to be headed the other way. “Bisol Crede is at a similar level to champagne but it’s much better to drink an expensive prosecco than a cheap champagne,” says Bisol. 

Prosecco is a very different wine to champagne but in the DOCG, where there is increased acidity, dryness and sometimes mineral character, it is as close as it can be to champagne. Brands such as Bisol, Follador and Ruggieri have spearheaded this style. 

“This dry crispness and small, soft bubbles can appeal to champagne drinkers” says Bisol, but adds that “there are sparkling wines for different moments, just as there are among other wine styles”. 

Despite the need for more proseccos to compete in the same price bracket as champagne, many producers are wary of the comparison. “Prosecco and champagne are totally different products that cannot be compared,” says Irene Patruno of Bottega. “Prosecco is made from Glera and possibly a few other indigenous grapes (max 15%), while champagne is made from Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. 

“Different soils, different climate conditions and, above all, different production processes: Charmat-Martinotti method versus Méthode Champenois. Although they both are usually associated with the idea of celebration, they have very little in common.” 

Looking ahead

According to Zonin, which is known for its vast DOC production, DOCG is starting to gain traction “where prosecco is already a large category – in the US, UK, Benelux and Nordic countries”, says Massimo Tuzzi.  He warns, though, that consumers must be established DOC drinkers before they can make the step. 

Last year Zonin introduced its first DOCG prosecco. “1821 was launched at TFWA Cannes 2013,” says Tuzzi. “We are market leaders in sparkling wine and we needed to have a super-premium prosecco in our portfolio. We had 17m bottles but no prosecco DOCG.” 

Follador, like Bisol, is a forerunner of the high-end marketing of prosecco. Cristina Follador pinpoints the UK, northern Europe and North America as “ripe for development” as they are established DOC markets. To stand out from the DOC crowd though, there is “the need for positive marketing” to “develop a premium brand in the international marketplace”. Follador is hoping to push its credentials in the premium platform of travel retail. It is currently the only Valdobbiadene Superiore exhibiting at the TFWA.

The likes of Follador and Bisol will have to continue to improve brand value through careful marketing and distribution, but having the bigger companies recognise the importance of DOCG could be even more telling for its future. 

Paying attention

Right now, less than 5% of Zonin’s output is DOCG wine. “Our experience is that more and more markets will pay attention to DOCG in the future,” says Tuzzi. “To keep the level of Zonin’s reputation high in 10 years we need to achieve 15% DOCG.” 

As a product, prosecco has been one of the great consumer success stories of recent times – and if consumers start to get serious about the serious end of prosecco, prices need to rise to match their expectations. The key prosecco markets of the US, the UK and northern Europe are price conscious – and that’s not to say their consumers don’t pay high prices, they just need to understand why they are paying them.

The producers of prosecco hills might not see the comparison with champagne but, in terms of building value and reputation in the minds of consumers, that is the blueprint.  

For prosecco’s success story to reach its second chapter, the DOCG’s must get across its quality credentials. There is little doubt to those that have experienced it, Conegliano Valdobbiadene is home to one of the world’s finest sparkling wines.