9 Great Bottles Of Prosecco

Prosecco was one of the great stories of 2011 for several reasons. First was the great growth that continued for this fresh and fruity sparkler from the northeast of Italy, but beyond that was the  intriguing change that came to prosecco.

Prosecco was starting to become a generic name for a wine made with the prosecco grape. As you might imagine, prosecco producers who made the wine in traditional areas were not thrilled by the general use of what is both the name of a specific wine as well as a specific town in Italy. 

But that was the name of the grape, and of course, all of us variety-obsessed New World types just had to have the name of the grape on the label. Even if, or especially if, that name was prosecco and you were producing a wine that could benefit from all the hard work prosecco producers (those Italian types) had done over the years.

One small hitch — the grape is not named prosecco, but rather glera, which was reaffirmed in 2009 when DOCG rules were crafted for prosecco. So get your glera anywhere you want, but your prosecco, all crisp, with low alcohol and a touch of sweetness accenting its peach and pear flavors, remains rooted in the vines that surround Conegliano and Valdobbiadene. Now there's a word we could all use some help with.

Click here for the 9 Great Bottles of Prosecco Slideshow.

— Gregory Dal Piaz, Snooth