Double your pleasure with Prosecco Rosé

If you love Prosecco and if you love rosé, then you’ll have twice the pleasure with Prosecco Rosé. It’s a new appellation, introduced in 2020 as a DOC (denominazione di origine controllata). Before that, sparkling rosé from the Prosecco region in the Veneto was simply called vino spumante.

Enrico Bedin, who runs Bedin winery, says, “In the last ten to fifteen years, there’s been an increase of requests for sparkling rosé, especially from abroad.” Umberto Cosmo, who owns Bellenda winery with his two brothers, shares that impression. Speaking of their Prosecco Rosé, he says, “This the first wine of Bellenda that we started selling even before it was bottled. People were so curious.”

The idea of a Prosecco Rosé DOC was pushed by the Prosecco Consortium and the larger wineries —  the big fish like Mionetto, Bisol, Zonin, La Gioiosa et Amorosa, and the cooperatives. Cosmo notes, “We at the smaller wineries had to follow them.” He resisted the idea at first. “I’m always cautious about introducing a new wine at the winery. It’s a lot of work. But later on, I must admit that I liked it.”

Purist wine snobs hated the idea. But the advocates prevailed. And it makes sense. As Bedin points out, every other sparkling wine region in the world makes a rosé, including Champagne, Cava, Franciacorta, Crémant, and California. To compete on the international market, they had to introduce a Prosecco Rosé. Consumers seem to love it, making sales go through the roof. The first year of the DOC, in 2020, there were 16.8 million bottles produced. The following year, the number had grown to 71.5 million. According to Davide Roncada, assistant winemaker at Valdo, growers have expanded their plantings of pinot noir, the grape that gives the pink color to Prosecco Rosé. In 2021, the Prosecco Consortium allowed nearly 15,000 more acres of pinot noir vineyards to be planted to meet growing demand.

Prosecco Rosé DOC defined

Wine has been made in Italy’s northeast since Roman times. In 77 AD, Pliny the Elder wrote about wine production there. This particular corner of Italy has long been defined by white wines. Bellenda’s Umberto Cosmo shows me an enographic map from the 1870s. It’s littered with icons for white wine production. This area is ideal for whites because it’s wedged between Dolomite mountains and the Adriatic sea. That results in huge temperature swings between day and night, which white grapes love, gaining aromas and acidity.

That’s important for Prosecco Rosé, because it’s made from 85–90 percent glera, the main white grape in Prosecco. The balance in Prosecco Rosé is pinot noir, vinified as a red wine. The two are mixed together before secondary fermentation, which the DOC rules state has to happen in stainless steel pressurized tanks, called autoclaves. Nearly all Prosecco has been made this way since Federico Martinotti invented the method in 1895. But unlike Prosecco, which spends 30 days in tank, Prosecco Rosé is double that, 60 days allowing for a more persistent bubble and helping fix the color. Prosecco Rosé must be a Millesimato, meaning the grapes come from a single vintage. The DOC rules permit most levels of sweetness, including Brut Nature, Extra Brut, Brut, and Extra Dry, equivalent to 0–17 gm/l of residual sugar. It’s generally low in alcohol, averaging around 11 percent.

Prosecco Rosés to try

My favorite Prosecco Rosé comes from Albino Armani. The winery is historic, dating back to 1607. Albino and his brother, Egle, are the 16th generation. They work mostly with native grape varieties, spread across 750 acres in three regions of northeast Italy. Their Prosecco Rosé comes from the Alta Grava Friulana part of Friuli. It’s 90/10 glera/pinot noir. The wine has a very distinctive flavor which I love, both floral and fruity. The pinot noir gives red fruit, like wild strawberry, red raspberry, and red cassis, while the glera gives the characteristic apple and pear. It’s a wine of great finesse and character.

 Another to try is Valdo’s Marca Oro Prosecco Rosé. In 2021, Valdo made 1.5 million bottles of Prosecco Rosé, including one that’s not exported. According to the U.S. importer, Valdo has been the best-selling Prosecco for the past 15 years. Altogether, they produce 19.8 million bottles of more than 40 labels of sparkling wine from their base in Valdobbiadene, ground zero for Prosecco DOCG, which is one step up from the DOC. As such, Valdo is considered a medium-to-large winery in a land of Prosecco giants.

Marca Oro Prosecco Rosé has 15 percent pinot noir, which gives it an appealing savory character. It remains in tank for a month longer than required: 90 days. Most wineries do their Prosecco Rosé as an Extra Dry. Valdo does their rosé Brut, which counterintuitively is a bit drier than Extra Dry. They made that choice despite Extra Dry being more popular with consumers for Prosecco across the board. “We want it to be to be more vertical and elegant,” says Roncada, the assistant winemaker. It has delicate strawberry aromas and loads of minerality. Like most Prosecco Rosés, it’s pale peach-pink in color, akin to the color of rosés from Provence.

 Valdo is the oldest winery in Valdobbiadene, founded in 1926. It’s owned by the Bolla family, who bought the winery in the 1940s. (Bolla is probably best known for their Soave, the production of which was outside of Verona. They sold that separate company when the family patriarch died.)

Bellenda makes two very fine Prosecco Rosés, rounding out their portfolio of 18 Proseccos and Col Fondo (the traditional way of making bubbles through secondary fermentation in bottle). One is a Brut, and the other is an Extra Dry called Zelda Prosecco Rosé.

Prior to the winery’s founding in 1986, the family sold grapes and raised cattle and chickens. When the brothers took over from their father, they transformed the milk barn into a winery. Now they own 86 acres of vines, from which they make 20 wines, both sparkling and still. No pesticides are used. Umberto Cosmo tells me that’s better for the yeast in the secondary fermentation in the pressurized autoclaves. “Pressure affects yeast. It’s like working 50 meters under the sea.”

For Cosmo, “A good Prosecco Rosé must maintain the characteristics of being a Prosecco. So first of all, it’s a Prosecco. Then it’s a rosé. It’s a rosé in terms of color and in the aromatic part. A bit of red fruit, a touch of strawberry and red raspberry.”  They make theirs with 10 percent pinot noir, to preserve the Prosecco character.

Like many wineries, Bellenda already had pinot noir vines. The grape is allowed in the Prosecco blend up to 15 percent, along with chardonnay, pinot grigio, pinot bianco, and some native white grapes. That’s true for both Prosecco DOC and the two Prosecco DOCGs: Asolo and Conegliano Valdobbiadene.

Last but not least, there’s Bedin’s DOC Rosé Treviso. It’s an 85/15 blend, the grapes coming from the hills of Asolo. The sparkler is delicate pink with typical notes of red berries and stone fruit. It’s fresh and vibrant with bright acidity, and with a lingering perlage (bubbles) that is creamy on the palate.

Bedin is the second-largest winery in Asolo, with 2 million bottles and 19 labels. It officially started in 1948 as a traditional farm with animals and mixed crops, including some vineyards planted by Giacomo Bedin, the grandfather of the four brothers who now run the show.

Enrico Bedin tells me that 70 percent of Prosecco producers make a Prosecco Rosé, and 90 percent of that is sold abroad, mostly to Americans. It’s a niche market in Italy, but growing in the art cities, where the tourists are.

Serving suggestions

The trend nowadays is not to serve sparkling wines in a flute, but rather in a regular wine glass. The thinking is that you can detect the wine’s aromas better. And don’t serve it too cold or you’ll suppress the flavors. Think of a ripe peach in the fridge. When it’s cold, it’s pretty tasteless, but as it warms up, the flavor comes out. So 30 to 40 minutes in the fridge will do for any sparkling wine.

Published in the Spring 2023 issue of Tastes of Italia.