Italy and Croatia are arguing over who can use the name Prosecco: NPR
Antonio Calanni / AP
PROSECCO, Italy – In small pockets of terraced terrain overlooking the bay shared by Italy, Slovenia and Croatia, Milos Skabar reawakens a century-old winemaking tradition known as Prosekar, which has its roots with its more famous bubble cousin Prosecco.
But this modest frothy blend, virtually unknown beyond the Italian port city of Trieste, where it is made on the Adriatic-Slovenian mainland, is caught in a dispute that will soon erupt: producers of the hugely popular Italian Prosecco sparkling wine are struggling to Croatian winemakers would not use the name Prosek for their sweet dessert wine.
A handful of Prosekar producers hope to use their ties to Prosecco’s birthplace, just above Trieste, to make their wine more recognizable, but worries that their name is also at stake.
“Prosekar wine is original, as it was born 300 years before prosecco,” said Škabar, looking at his vineyard overlooking the port, in the distance a dark green line of Slovenian hills. “So he is the father of Prosekar, Prošek, Prošek and everyone else.”
The battle threatens not only the sanctity of Prosecco, the world’s best-selling wine, but also the European Union’s system of geographical indications, created to ensure the specificity and quality of craft food, wine and spirits, proponents say. This market is worth almost € 75 billion ($ 87 billion) a year – half in wines, according to a 2020 study by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch.
Italy says Prosek will cause confusion; Croatia does not agree with this
The Italian government has pledged to defend the name Prosecca, and other producers of protected products with different geographical roots, from Italian Parmigiano Reggiano to French champagne, are mobilizing as the European Commission prepares to discuss Croatia’s petition to label its niche wine with Traditional Name Average.
“The problem for us is not that these manufacturers, who make very few bottles, enter our market. But there is confusion that could be caused among consumers,” said Luca Giavi, general manager of the Prosecco DOC consortium that promotes Prosecco. and ensures the quality of wines under the EU label “controlled origin”.
Prosecco has annual sales of $ 2.4 billion ($ 2.8 billion), most of which is exported. “Everyone perceives the situation as a threat to our success,” said producer Stefano Zanette, with buyers around the world probably unable to distinguish between similar names.
Croatia claims that Prosek’s name and tradition are centuries old, before Prosecco was protected in the EU system, and that it differs from Prosecco because of its place as a dessert wine.
“Consumers will not be confused by this,” said Croatian MEP Ladislav Ilcic in a recent debate. “The average should legitimately be given a protected designation of origin, and producers should have full access to markets.”
Apart from the etymological roots associated with the village of Proseecco, the wines have little in common
The European Federation of Wines of Origin, based in Brussels, is preparing a report in support of Italy. He is convinced that the European Commission’s decision to deal with the case has defied its own battle to win over other countries and blocs to recognize the EU’s geographical indications system.
The dispute, which will be decided in the coming months, is likely to turn to the story of the origins of Prosecco, which originates from the bilingual Italian village of Prosecco near the Slovenian border above Trieste, where winemaking once flourished.
From here, say the ethnic Slovenes Italians who make prosekar, the grapes known as Glera originate, which is the basis of both Prošek and Prosekar.
Antonio Calanni / AP
But in addition to common etymological roots, Prosekar, Prosecco, and Prosek have little in common.
Prosecco, made predominantly from Glera grapes, is produced by three consortia covering nine Italian regions in the Alpine foothills winding along the Adriatic Sea. They produce more than 550 million bottles a year.
Prosek is a sweet wine produced in Dalmatia from dried home-grown Croatian grapes, without Gler, and can be red or white.
Antonio Calanni / AP
Prosekar, on the other hand, is an equivalent blend of Glera and two other grapes, produced by less than a dozen micro-producers. Prosekar has been mostly grown at home over the past decades and shared among friends, family and neighbors, and has often been served from ad hoc inns in private homes.
Winemakers offer proof of Prosecca’s connection
Prosecco decided to protect their preferred geographical indication 12 years ago after seeing that winemakers in northeastern Italy had lost the right to use the Tocai label in a European decision protecting wines produced in the Hungarian Tokai region. In Italy, tocai was simply the name of a grape variety, with no geographical links. The decision ruined the creators of Friuli Tocai, who struggled to find a market with a new name: Friulano.
Both the Italian and Croatian regions, which quarreled over the name Prosecco, shared a history of Venetian and then Austro-Hungarian control dating back to the period when Prosecco moved northwest, to present-day Italy, and south, along the Croatian-Dalmatian. coast.
Antonio Calanni / AP
Proponents of Prosecco say the name Prosecco has never been used uniformly and even meant a generic form of dessert wine.
Written documents link the village of Prosecco to wine as early as the 1600s and 1700s, when wines were named “prosecco” to indicate their original village, wine historian Stefano Cosma said. “In the 1800s, it was already sparkling wine,” he said.
In today’s Prosecco, Prosekar winemakers hope that because the EU has only included you in the geographical area of the protected wine, they could try to expand their market for Prosecco, which they say was first produced in 1548.
The makers of Prosek and Prosekar say they are outcasts for now, but tolerated
However, as their wine has not been awarded the EU label, Prosekar producers are prohibited from using their name in the same way as Prosek producers. So far, they have not been challenged until they are sold outside Trieste, said Andrej Bole, a producer of Prosekar’s sixth generation.
“We are outcasts,” Bole said. But “they tolerate us for now.”
They work with the Prosecco consortium to help their wine obtain the desired designation of origin, which is awarded with each vintage. The issue of the legal use of the name Prosekar will not be resolved until this obstacle is removed, the consortium leader said.
“We have to adhere to European norms,” Giavi said. “But there’s this possibility that doesn’t bother her.”