Prosecco is produced exclusively in nine provinces of the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions - from harvesting to bottling, everything has to take place here - which is why Prosecco has been recognised as a protected designation of origin since 2009.
Now, rosé has been added to the white Prosecco DOC. It may only be produced as Spumante in the variants Brut Nature (without residual sugar) to Extra Dry (with up to 17 g/l residual sugar).
The rosé variant is a cuvée of at least 85 percent Glera and at least ten percent Pinot Nero and is aged on the yeast for at least 60 days.
The long road to the DOC
The path to approval of a new product with a protected designation of origin is a long one: after local, regional and national bodies, the European Union must also give its approval. With approval at the end of October 2020, it will now be possible to market and export Prosecco DOC Rosé.
Of the total of 347 Prosecco DOC bottlers, 75 have already started producing Prosecco DOC Rosé. The consortium expects about 57 percent of all producers to start production in the next few weeks.
"Of the total 486 million bottles of Prosecco DOC, 77.8 per cent are exported", explains Stefano Zanette, President of the Prosecco DOC Consortium.
"Thanks to the European recognition of our rosé as part of the protected designation of origin, we expect an increase in sales in the last trimester of 2020. I'm happy for the producers who quickly and flexibly seized this opportunity and immediately went into production."
Consorzio Di Tutela Della Denominazione Di Origine Controllata Prosecco
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