Not only that, but with wine taste and style fairly similar at the lower end of the price spectrum, it’s a drink that offers a predictable, consistent experience. It’s not one of those categories where there are swings in sweetness levels, differences in texture, or variations in fruit expression. The Global Prosecco Masters is a competition created and run by the drinks business, and forms part of its successful Masters series for noble grape varieties, such as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir; major wine styles, from sparkling to rosé; and famous regions including Rioja, Champagne and Tuscany. The competition is exclusively for Prosecco. The top wines were awarded Gold, Silver or Bronze medals according to their result, and those expressions that stood out as being outstanding in their field received the ultimate accolade – the title of Prosecco Master. This report features the medal winners only. New to the Prosecco Masters this year was this drop from Col Vetoraz, which impressed us for its generosity and intensity. At the sweeter end of the spectrum with 16g/l residual sugar, there is some noticeable mouth-filling richness, along with ripe peach and pear flavours. But if that sounds a bit heavy, fear not, this is a balanced glass of fizz, with the sweet fruit more than offset by a fresh lemon zest acidity.

Furthermore, if you want something with a distinctive personality, a Prosecco with greater complexity, then seek out the Rive classification, which is used for the best sub-regions of the DOCGs, where hillside vineyards tend to yield sparkling wines with intensity, and layers of flavour. Made by adding 10-15% wine from Pinot Noir to the white wine base for making Prosecco, the character of the wine is similar to its long-standing blanco variant: the Prosecco Rosés I tasted combined plenty of the usual peach and pear fruit you find in blanco Prosecco, but with a hint of crushed strawberry, and sometimes a touch of bubblegum. However, in my experience from this year’s competition, and previous ones, the DOCG sparkling wines tend to have a purer, more defined fruit expression than the DOC Proseccos at similar prices. The former also tend to have a bit less sugar too, requiring the fruit in DOCG wines to be faultless and fully ripe, while allowing the taste of such fine grapes to shine, without the masking effect that can arise from perceptible sweetness. It’s a pristine drinking experience. And, combine that with its aromatic, distinctive nature, and you have something pleasing and easy to identify. Such traits have also been key to the remarkable performance of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc in this century. The selection below represents some of the most exciting finds from the competition, which comprised around 200 Proseccos, all of which were assessed without any knowledge of the producer behind them.A full report, including all the medallists from the Prosecco Masters 2021, will be published in the May edition of the drinks business.

For now, read on for our top 10 Proseccos for all styles and occasions. Galanti Prosecco, Extra Dry, Prosecco DOC, NV (14g/l) Finally, what about rosé? As the newly allowed sub-category of DOC Prosecco – bear in mind that DOCG regions have not authorised this colour variant – there is much excitement about its arrival. While this is justified on the basis that pink fizz is popular, and so too in Prosecco, in terms of the product, Prosecco rosato is not a markedly different proposition in terms of taste. If you are involved in marketing, then you’ll want to consider every aspect of its success, starting with the four p’s of product, price, place and promotion. And Prosecco scores well on all counts, with its fairly low cost, broad distribution, combined with positive Italian associations and its easy-to-pronounce memorable name.But that’s not to suggest there aren’t differences in Prosecco. One reason for variation relates to sourcing, in particular, whether the grapes were grown in the hillier historic areas of the region, the DOCGs of Valdobbiadene, Conegliano and Asolo, as opposed to the generally flatter plains of this part of Italy, which are used for the much larger Prosecco DOC. Generally, the DOCG offerings are a touch more expensive, and are deemed to be better quality, but is this always the case?