Until 2009, "Prosecco" was the name of a grape as much as a wine, grown around a village of the same name near Trieste. Italy renamed the grape Glera that year and turned Prosecco into a protected place name instead, freeing it to become one of the biggest sparkling wine categories in the world.
Tank, not bottle
Prosecco ferments a second time in large pressurised steel tanks, the Charmat (or Martinotti) method, rather than in the bottle you drink from. That keeps the focus on Glera's primary aromatics, green apple, pear, white flowers, rather than adding the bready, autolytic notes bottle-ageing brings to Champagne or Franciacorta. It also means Prosecco is built to drink young, usually within a year or two of release.
DOC, DOCG and Cartizze
The broad DOC covers nine provinces across Veneto and Friuli. The hillier, hand-harvested slopes around Conegliano and Valdobbiadene earn DOCG status, with the steepest 107 hectares, Cartizze, allowed to add "Superiore" to the label. Sweetness runs the other way from what the words suggest: Brut is driest, Extra Dry is actually medium, and Dry is the sweetest of the three.
FAQ
Is Prosecco made like Champagne?
No. Champagne ferments a second time inside the bottle; Prosecco ferments in tank and is then bottled under pressure, which is faster, cheaper and keeps the fruit forward rather than yeasty.
What does "Extra Dry" mean on the label?
Confusingly, it is sweeter than Brut. It is the most common style and sits in the middle of Prosecco's sweetness scale, well short of genuinely sweet.
Is DOCG Prosecco always better than DOC?
It comes from a smaller, hillier zone with lower yields and stricter rules, which tends to concentrate flavour, but plenty of good Prosecco carries the wider DOC label too.