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PROSECCO, Italy (AP) – On tiny terraces overlooking a bay divided by Italy, Slovenia and Croatia, Milos Skabar is reviving a centuries-old winemaking tradition called Prosekar, which began with its better-known bubbly cousin Prosecco. Splits .
But this humble, carbonated blend, practically unknown outside of the Italian port city of Trieste, where it is made on a strip of land between the Adriatic Sea and Slovenia, is embroiled in a dispute that will soon explode: the makers of Italy’s hugely popular sparkling wine, Prosecco are fighting for Croatian winemakers to use the name Prosek for their sweet dessert wine.
The handful of Prosekar producers hope to be able to use their connections to the birthplace of Prosecco above Trieste to gain more recognition for their wine, but fear that their name is also in danger.
“Prosekar wine is the original, because it was born 300 years before Prosecco,” says Skabar, looking at his vineyard with a view of the harbor and the hills of Slovenia as a dark green line in the distance. “So it’s the father of Prosekar, Prosecco, Prosek and all the others.”
This fight is not only about the sanctity of Prosecco, the best-selling wine in the world, but also about the system of geographical names of the European Union, which was created to guarantee the specificity and quality of artisanal foods, wines and spirits, say Defender. This market has an annual volume of nearly 75 billion euros ($ 87 billion) – half of that in wine, according to a 2020 study by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch.
The Italian government has pledged to defend the Prosecco name and is mobilizing other manufacturers of proprietary products with diverse geographic roots, from Italian Parmigiano Reggiano to French champagne, while the European Commission prepares deliberations on Croatia’s petition to name its niche wine with the traditional to denote Prosek name.
“The problem for us is not that these producers, who make a very small number of bottles, are entering our market. But it is the confusion it could cause for consumers, ” said Luca Giavi, Director General of the Prosecco DOC Consortium, which promotes Prosecco and ensures the quality of wines under the EU’s “Controlled Designation of Origin” label.
Prosecco has annual sales of 2.4 billion euros (2.8 billion US dollars), the majority of which is exported. “Everyone perceives the situation as a threat to our success,” said producer Stefano Zanette, although global buyers may not be able to distinguish between similar names.
Croatia argues that Prosek’s name and tradition are centuries old, older than the protection of Prosecco in the EU system, and that its place as a dessert wine sets it apart from Prosecco.
“Consumers will not be confused,” said Ladislav Ilcic, a Croatian member of the European Parliament, in a recent debate. “Prosek should legitimately receive the Protected Designation of Origin and producers should have full access to the markets.”
The Brussels-based European Federation of Origin Wines is preparing an order to support Italy. She believes the European Commission’s decision to hear the case defies its own struggle to get other nations and trading blocs to recognize the EU’s system of geographical names.
The dispute, which is to be decided in the coming months, should bring the story of the origins of Prosecco in a nutshell, which comes from the bilingual Italian village of Prosecco near the Slovenian border above Trieste, where viticulture once flourished.
It is here, say the Slovenian Italians who make Prosekar, that the grape known as Glera originated – the basis for both Prosecco and Prosekar.
But apart from common etymological roots, Prosekar, Prosecco and Prosek have little in common.
Prosecco, which is mainly made from the Glera grape, is made by three consortia that span nine Italian provinces in the foothills of the Alps that meander along the Adriatic Sea. They produce more than 550 million bottles annually.
Prosek is a sweet wine made in Dalmatia from dried native Croatian grapes, none of them glera, and can be red or white.
Prosekar, on the other hand, is an equivalent blend of glera and two other grapes made by fewer than a dozen micro-producers. For the past several decades, Prosekar has been mainly made at home and shared among friends, family and neighbors, often served from ad hoc taverns in private homes.
Prosecco makers tried to protect their coveted Geographical Indication 12 years ago after winemakers in northeastern Italy lost the right to use the Tocai label in a European decision that protected wines from Hungary’s Tokaji region. In Italy, Tocai was simply the name of the grape variety, with no geographical ties. The decision discouraged the makers of Friuli Tocai, who were struggling to find a market with a new name: Friulano.
Both the Italian and Croatian regions contending over the name Prosecco shared a history of Venetian and then Austro-Hungarian control that included the time when Prosecco headed northwest into what is now Italy and south along the Dalmatian coast Croatia wandered.
Prosecco defenders say the name Prosek was never used consistently and even meant a generic form of dessert wine.
Written documents link the village of Prosecco to wine as early as the 17th and 18th centuries, when wines were called “from Prosecco” to indicate their place of origin, said the wine historian Stefano Cosma. “It was already a sparkling wine in the 19th century,” he said.
With today’s Prosecco, Prosekar winemakers hope that because the EU has included the village itself in the geographical area for the protected wine, they have a chance to expand their market for Prosekar, which is said to have been first produced in 1548.
But because their wine does not deserve the EU designation, Prosekar producers as well as Prosek producers are prohibited from using their name. They have not yet been challenged as long as they are not sold beyond Trieste, said Andrej Bole, a sixth generation Prosekar producer.
“We are outlaws,” said Bole. But “at the moment we are tolerated.”
They work with the Prosecco consortium to help their wine achieve the coveted insignia of origin that is awarded with each vintage. The question of the legal use of the name Prosekar will only be decided once this hurdle has been overcome, said the head of the consortium.
“We have to look at the European standards,” said Giavi. “But there is this option that we don’t mind.”
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