Prosecco, another vintage another alert, it is another late 1st of April joke?

Another year, another vintage, another alert that we could be soon running out of Prosecco. I have just stumble upon this article, on the Telegraph and as soon as I read the alert, a smile appeared on my face, this is the third alert in as many vintages and years and as I said then, I say now, we will never run out of Prosecco.

Knowing the Italian wine industry like I do, I can guarantee that will never run out of Prosecco, we will always find plenty on our supermarkets, cheap Prosecco will always be with us, it may become slightly less cheap or more expensive depending on which side you are, but will not go away, and there is plenty of good prosecco available. Another reason we will never run out of prosecco is because often, the sparkling wine we are given, is not actually prosecco, but simply a sparkling wine, Prosecco is now, very often, the name of any sparkling wine more than the wine itself.

As I wrote on a previous post, Prosecco can only be a victim of its own success, otherwise it will be with us for many more vintages independently of the world consumption, and by reading the article, and the alternatives suggested, I can see the first cracks starting to appear on the Prosecco bubble.

Due to the high demand Prosecco or Glera grapes are becoming more and more expensive on the wholesale market and to protect their margins, supermarkets and similar, are looking at alternatives, and here we read the first attempt in breaking the Prosecco empire.

I personally dont think any of the alternatives mentioned in the article will replace the Prosecco for the time being, the only potential threats are the Cava and Cremant, but the first has been sat on the shelves for as long as I can remember and it has an image issue that needed to be addressed and the second is overshadowed by the Champagne.

In Italy there are plenty of other sparkling wines, behind every spumante there is a sparkling wine, from north to south, now more than ever. Suzy Atkins on her article mentions some of them, however, I would not have included Moscato d'Asti or Lambrusco, I guess she was just looking at alternatives available through supermarkets and a few more big retailers.

Pignoletto is a grape from Emilia Romagna and all grapes from the region are available as still and sparkling, frizzante, wines because they matches perfectly the local food, cheeses and charcuteries, so the Lambrusco and they always been there.

The Moscato d'Asti is a completely different wine, is a sweet wine, with very low alcohol, slightly sparkling and sweet due to the fact that is made with Muscat grape and is perfect with cakes and biscuits whilst the Moscato Spumante reminds us Italians of Christmas and the Christmas box containing an industrially made Panettone and a bottle of Spumante d'Asti that we all dread to receive, I have not seen them for years so the Spumante d'Asti.

At Italyabroad.com we have plenty of Prosecco available and alternatives sparkling wines, spumanti or made using the classic method, from Fiano and Aglianico from Campania, to Passerina from Abruzzo to Barbera from Emilia Romagna, including Moscato d'Asti and Brachetto d'Acqui, a sweet red wine very similar to Moscato d'Asti.

Check our range of sparkling wines, traditional or Prosecco method for alternatives