December 5, 2024 • 40 mins
This inexpensive sparkling wine has a short history that’s nonetheless very storied. Anney and Lauren pop open the science, cultures, and marketing behind Prosecco.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hello, and welcome to save your protection of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie Reese and I'm mourn Vulahbum and today we
have an episode for you about prosecco.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, drink responsibly. Yes, yes, this one was a bit
too wrangle.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah. Sometime around i'd say eleven thirty pm last night,
I texted my best friend in like all title case,
I have read too much about prosecco.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
You went too far and that's how I feel. Yes, yes, well,
was there any particular reason it was on your mind?
Lord gosh, I you know, no, maybe sure? Uh day season.
Yeah yeah, and it's a delightful it's a delightful sparkling wine.
(01:08):
It is. And I actually associated with you, which is
funny given what we were talking about before we started
recording and your love of bringing a sparkling wine.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I'm really leaning into that
as like a personality trade.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Sure. Yes, but way back when I was too scared
to open champagne bottles or sparkling wine bottles, and you
taught me how you are the one that was like
I really love a good prosecco, Like you should check
out prosecco. And now it's one of my like, if
I want a sparkling line, it's a go to, So
(01:41):
thank you, Laura.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh yeah, yeah, you're welcome. Yeah, they're nice and bright
and clean and relatively inexpensive. Good times all around, good
times all around. Well people agree, gosh, we're going to
get into that. But National Prosecco Day is August thirteenth,
so that's apropos of nothing. Right now.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
You can see our sparkling Wine episode, which is the
very first one, so as always, please give you some grace.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, Champagne, yes, Champagne.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Specifically, it was Champagne specifically. Yes, you're right, but we
did a video on sparkling wine. You can find our
video still up and the visuals are great in that one.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Super producer Tyler was our geographer I think for that.
So good. So if you're interested, it's really cool, like
you get to see the bubbles forming and really close
up and.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Oh yeah, we spent like a whole day in the
studio just filming bubbles.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, it's a good time. I guess I also see
our other wine episodes. We've done quite a few at
this point. But I guess that does bring us to
our question. Prosecco. What is it? Well?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Prosecco is a category of why finds, the most common
and popular of which is a white, sparkling wine with
these bright like fruity to floral flavors and crisp bubbles
and a low price tag. Prosecco is a protected term
in the European Union and other places through trade agreements,
designating wines produced in a particular region of Italy, primarily
(03:20):
from a variety of grapes now called glera. Prosecco's also
come in still, semi sparkling and sparkling rose varieties, and
can range in sweetness from brute mature, brute nature sure
unsweet to demisec which is like heck and sweet. The
price is kept down through the use of this pressurized
vat batch method to produce the bubbles after the wine
(03:43):
has been initially fermented, which is like a lot quicker
and less complex than producing the bubbles individually in bottle
or in bottle individually. I guess you're not producing the
bubbles individually, you're producing the bottels individually. Yes. The result
is a nice, clean, largely uncomplicated wine that's served cold
(04:03):
and is lovely for sipping on its own, you know,
maybe before or with a nice fresh meal, or for
topping off light cocktails, or mixing with like a mild
citrusy amari like apparol to amp up all the fruity
flavors in there. It's a really great a pair of
teefe or palate cleanser. It's like the memory of a
perfume that you remember liking as a teenager, or like
(04:26):
like being outdoors on a cool, sunny spring day and
smelling flowers blooming like somewhere over the next hill.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah yeah, yeah, nice, like bright breezy. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So let's talk about wine law.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Oh no, the scariest thing of all. Not too not
too deep, okay.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Sopersecco is a denomination of control origin, meaning that in
order to be labeled prosecco, a wine has to come
from this particular region, which is parts of northeast Italy
and be made under particular specifications. Prosecco doc wines come
in three main varieties, spumante or sparkling, frisante or semi sparkling,
(05:18):
and tranquilo or still. All have to be made with
at least eighty five percent glera grapes formerly called prosecco grapes,
which then undergo secondary fermentation in pressurized tanks called autoclaves
for at least thirty days. A rose style is now
part of the doc as well, but only in spumante.
It undergoes a secondary fermentation that is twice as long
(05:40):
for flavor related reasons. There is also a doc G,
and the G stands for guaranteed. These are more specialized
varieties made in specific areas, even more specific areas under
like additional regulations, and each bottle receives a traceable number
areas that can receive a DOCG. Are and bear with me.
(06:03):
I have not taken Italian Connellano, Valdel Biadine and then
the nearby Azolo, which are growing regions named for these
three towns near each other in the steep hills of
northeast Italy where prosecco production began. And I read on
A Somolia's blog that these are actually worth seeking out,
(06:24):
like if you have the money and the interest, So
I'm certainly going to be on the lookout and I'm
so curious now. Yes, yeah, there's also a subcategory carved
out for prosecco producers who choose to do the secondary
fermentation in bottle, but okay, let's talk about that. So
sparkling wines are produced by first fermenting grape juice called
must in the industry into like regular old still wine,
(06:47):
by letting yeasts eat sugars in the wine and then
poop alcohol and flavors yeastoo. And then you take that
base wine and add more sugar and yeast to set
off a secondary fermentation to create the carbon dioxide bubbles.
Some sparkling wines like champagne are given that sparkle during
(07:07):
a secondary fermentation straight in the individual bottles in which
they'll be sold, and this is called the metal Chimpinois
or Mattald traditionionale or the classic method. In contrast, most
sparkling proseccos are made via secondary fermentation in a single large, pressurized,
temperature controlled stainless steel vat called an autoclave, and then
(07:28):
it's bottled afterwards. This is called the Martinatti method or
the Charma method after its two primary inventors, and it
is way less fussy, less time consuming, and therefore less expensive,
which is part of why a doc prosecco can be
much cheaper than like bottle fermented sparkling wines, especially ones
(07:49):
with name recognition like Champagne, the Charma method also produces
slightly different flavors in the finished wines. Charma tends to
let like fruity flavors shine through, whereas bottle fermenting tends
to create sort of like bready flavors. Sometimes with the
Sharma method, you might conduct your initial fermentation of the
base wine inside the autoclave and then just kind of
(08:10):
like keep going. In more traditional prosecco methods, you decant
and refine the base wine to remove sediments and let
the flavors develop, and then taste and blend a few
base wines to come up with your final blend before
undergoing secondary fermentation. But either way, once you're ready for
that secondary fermentation, you add more yeasts and sugar for
those yeasts to eat, plus a bit more sugar depending
(08:32):
on how sweet you want the final wine to be,
then lock it into the autoclave, which, yes, is a
machine that can hold its contents at temperatures and pressures
different from the ambient temperature and pressure of a room.
It ferments for as long as it takes to reach
the desired level of bubbliness, and you can tell because
(08:53):
the pressure inside the tank will keep rising as the
yeasts eat the sugar and poop more carbon dioxide. So
like a semi sparkling prosecco might be stopped below three
bars of atmospheric pressure, a full spumante might go until
it hits like six bars. The typical secondary fermentation is
thirty to eighty days. The fermentation is then stopped by
(09:13):
bringing the temperature below freezing, you know, like zeros elsius
or thirty two farenheit to kill off the yeasts, and
then you can filter out the leaves which is the
dead yeasts and any other sentiments and bottle of wine,
all while maintaining pressure.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
That's pretty cool, super cool. I love that.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Oh right, and this is not the episode in which
I explain how autoclaves work.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Oh blasts, You've done enough already. Oh thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I think I have, I really think I have. Oh okay,
but yeah, So the finished proseccos are like pale straw
blonde in color, or very pale pink in the case
of the rosees. Flavors you know, will vary from different
producer and from batch to batch, but you're typically looking
(10:02):
at like a bright, fruity wine reminiscent of pears and apples,
with a bit of floral spice, like like roses and
tobacco in there somewhere. And I'm not just saying that,
like there has been research that has isolated these common
flavor compounds from samples of prosecco. I am explaining to
you what those taste like or smell like. It is
(10:23):
the case may be. But yeah, so it's it's sort
of like like fresh tasting and is meant to be
consumed fresh.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Not aged. Well, what about the nutrition drink responsibly? Yeah, uh,
we do have some numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Oh my, heck, we do. Okay, So, prosecco is the
most sold type of sparkling wine in the world, and
producers are making a lot of it. In twenty twenty one,
over seven hundred million bottles of prosecco DOC and DOCG
were bottled. About eighty five percent to fifteen percent or
(11:05):
thereabouts is the ratio. That's a total of like five
point four million hecto leaders of wine. Wow. Yeah, I
don't know how much that that's too much.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
It's a lot, I can tell you that much.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
And that was in twenty twenty one. I think that
they're making even more at this point, Like in July
of twenty twenty four alone, they bottled half a million
hecto leaders and July is before the main harvest.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, Italy consumes the most prosecco. After that, the United
States imports the most, about a quarter of exports, followed
by the UK, Germany and France. As of twenty twenty three,
prosecco exports were worth some one point eight billion dollar yep.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Prey lucrative, yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
And there are some prosecco world records. There is a
Guinness record for the largest flute of prosecco. It was
achieved by the Stella Rosa Wines Company in twenty twenty two.
The glass in question was seven feet tall, that's about
two meters, and it contained a little bit over twenty
(12:26):
nine gallons of wine. That's one hundred and twelve point
two four liters to be precise, that's about one hundred
and seventy bottles worth of wine. This custom glass that
they built for it had had a round base and
like a short stem and a tapered cylindrical body, and
(12:48):
it did appear to be chilled. They served the wine
to something like four hundred people. A pop star by
the name of Ava Max was there. I don't know
who that is because I'm old, but.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I don't know either because I'm out of touch.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
With our powers combined, we're lame. It's cool. I don't
need to know about every pop star. It's fine, but yeah,
they held interestingly to me. They held the event at
the iHeartRadio Theater in Burbank. You know, a shout out
to our corporate overlords, and it's a beautiful theater. I
(13:29):
worked there one time for the iHeart Podcast Awards and
got to speak into the wildly expensive sound system that
they've gotten there. It was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
I would have died.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, yeah, I was like, do not touch anything.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Oh heck. Anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
There's also a Guinness record for the largest Sprits cocktail.
It was an apparel Sprits made with seven hundred bottles
of prosecco, three hundred and fifty bottles of apparol, and
one hundred and eighty bottles of sparkling water, thus producing
a cocktail that was two hundred and seventy seven gallons
(14:13):
in volume, which is one thousand and fifty liters. Wow. Yeah,
this was achieved also in twenty twenty two in Italy.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Some math involved in there. Well, good listeners if you're
if you're wondering, and you're like, a lot of this
seems pretty recent. A lot of it is.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
It is, it really is. I had no idea, but
all right, we are going to get into that history
as soon as we get back from a quick break
for a word from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,
(15:03):
thank you. So wine goes way back, you know, like
partially because the yeasts that ferment grape juice into wine
grow right on the skins of grapes, so like we
had wine a long time before anyone got around to
inventing the wheel, just for example.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah, yep. As we probably have made clear by now.
The history of prosecco, though, is difficult to bend down,
in part because of how long wine has been around.
But many speculate that it goes back to ancient Rome.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yeah, because like, okay, certainly there were lots of vineyards
and varieties of grapes being worked with in ancient Rome
and specifically in what's now northeast Italy. In ancient Rome,
but part of the difficulty in pinning down the history
of prosecco lies in like the purposefully obfuscated historical definition
(16:00):
of prosecco for extremely modern marketing purposes. So what we're
dealing with here is like two separate but connected histories.
One is about wines from Prosecco, the place which is
this town on like the Adriatic Sea, right, it's on
the eastern border of the Adriatic Sea, near the city
(16:23):
called Trieste. And then on the other hand, you've got
a history about the wines that became what we understand Prosecco,
the wines to be today, which are from the western
border of the Adriatic Sea, and then like kind of
(16:45):
up northwest from there in the Veneto region of which
Venice is now the capital.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
It's very confusing.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I love it. I love everything about it.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
It's great. Again, they were weren't thinking about as podcasters
They rarely are. Why well, there are multiple references that
may refer to wines from Prosecco, including one from our
friend Pliny the Elder. In first century CE, the wife
(17:19):
of Emperor Augustus was able to live to eighty six
thanks to the wines of Pusino, which is an older
name for what's now the village Prosecco. There were other
similar tales of people living long lives the aid of
these wines they are Their grapes were called ribola. They
were most likely still wines at the time, though.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Oh yeah yeah. Until improvements in glass making in like
the sixteen hundreds allowed for thicker, stronger bottles, wine was
generally still sparkling. Wines were usually accidental and actually pretty dangerous.
The bottles would often burst during aging, and you can
definitely see our Champagne episode for more on that.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Yeah, it's really interesting. Sometime in the sixteenth century, Italian
producers wanted to rename this wine to make it stand
out from other similarly named wines that were less expensive.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
And by this point that town Pasino near Trieste was
being called both Prosecco spelled differently, and prosek and it
had been since like the thirteen hundreds. Both of these
words come to us through the Slovenian language from like,
a proto Slavic word meaning something along the lines of
(18:35):
cutting a path through the woods, possibly with a connotation
of like for the sake of growing vineyards. Also, the
city of Trieste was in the habit of gifting like
a bunch of wine to Austria's nobles by the late
thirteen hundreds, so there were definitely like grapes and wines
(19:00):
being made here. They just were definitely not the same
grapes or wines that we associate with the name prosecco today.
Oh yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
I feel like we have like a surprise ending coming
for people who don't know, right. Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Meanwhile, other wines to the west, so there are records
of white wines being produced around Valdo Biadine starting in
the twelve eighties CE, So there you go.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yes. When travel writer Finds Morrison visited Italy from England
in fifteen ninety three, he wrote about how that wine
that Plenty talked about had been renamed as prosecco and
that it was one of the finest wines Italy produced.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, and Morrison was in the Venice Ish area at
the time. But it's a little bit difficult to tell
which wine he was talking about, like stuff from the
western Hills or stuff from the Eastern seaboard, due to
historical differences in place names, and because I'm pretty sure
(20:16):
Plenty was talking about not prosecco, And I'm pretty sure
that Morrison was talking about kind of prosecco. Yeah, but
he might be confused. I might be confused. We all
might be confused.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I think so.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I tried really hard, and I can't be sure. So
mysteries histories. Oh, meanwhile, the wine makers in that western
Veneto region were experimenting with their grapes and they developed
a few planting techniques and sub varieties. Folks in Coniano
(20:59):
Valdo Yea in particular, really honed their ability to make
the most of the region's super steep hills for vineyards
from like sixteen hundreds through the eighteen hundreds, and confusingly enough,
these grapes came to be known as prosecco grapes.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
And I could not.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Figure out why, total stab in the dark. But like
maybe if those wines from Trieste had like a good reputation,
like maybe the word prosecco spread with their fame and
just kind of got associated with other white wines and
white wine grapes and goings on. Maybe that's a guess.
(21:40):
I couldn't tell you.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
That makes sense, That makes sense to me. Yeah, maybe not.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Could have been a totally different, totally different origin story. Anyway,
two main sub varieties of prosecco grapes emerged. One that
is still in use today is lower yielding but gives
wine like nice spicy notes, and another is like higher
yielding and and that one was developed in the eighteen
sixties by one Count Balbi and is by far the
most grown type today. By the seventeen fifties, this Veneto
(22:11):
poet by the name of Valerian Canati, writing under a pseudonym,
he published a poem in which he really extolled the
virtues of a few wines from the region, including what
he called prosecco spelled the way that we do today,
which he described as having an apple bouquet. And this
is possibly the earliest mention of a wine from this
(22:34):
region with this spelling, and it does sound like flavors
that we know prosecco to have today, But the wines
being made there were still still until.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Until Some sources indicate that prosecco didn't become a bubbly
wine until the nineteenth century, when Antonio Carpene put the
wine through a secondary fermentation.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah, Carpenet was as a wine chemist with interests in
like a modernizing the Italian wine industry in general and
b sparkling wine in particular. In eighteen seventy six, he
helped co found the first wine research center in Italy,
the School of Viticulture and Analogy in Coniano, and he
(23:22):
probably would have been working with like traditional in bottle
secondary fermentation at the time, but he debuted a sparkling
wine from the area under the name Champagne Italiano in
eighteen eighty.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Okay, so let's go back and talk about the Charmont method,
or the method of doing the secondary fermentation part in
a pressurized tank.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah. So this method was developed by a few different
people over the course of the eighteen hundreds, and like
early nineteen hundreds, a French chemist Tuesdame, I didn't write
down because it didn't seem that important, and I've already
pronounced a lot of things. This episodisode started experimenting with
the idea around eighteen fifty two, using wooden tanks, but
it wasn't particularly like reliable or efficient. By eighteen ninety five,
(24:12):
an Italian wine scientist by the name of Federico Martinadi
refined and patented the process, still using wooden tanks three
tanks situation in nineteen oh seven. This was further refined
and patented again by French engineer Eugene Chamat, using enameled steel,
which would eventually lead to these stainless steel tanks we
(24:34):
use today. With all of these developments, the first commercial
sparkling wine, called a prosecco and in the style of
what we currently deemed prosecco, seems to have debuted from
the Veneto region in nineteen twenty four from those Carpenne
family vineyards.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
His nephew had gone on to perfect the method, and
after that it largely became known as a sparkling wine.
And I have to say this episode, I just had
a I had to take a beat because it's reminding
me of when I first started watching Game of Thrones
and I had no I had never read the books,
so I had no context for like all of these
(25:18):
places they're talking about, and I feel like I need
like a conspiracy board almost of like, Okay, this was here,
this was over here, they were doing this here. It's
just a lot going on there. Really is there?
Speaker 2 (25:31):
There?
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Really is there? Really really is You're like, hold on,
what are the river lands like? Where how does that.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Is the neck connected? I what, where's Dragonstone? I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Okay, I thought castle Rock was a person for an
embarrassment one time, and I kept waiting for them to
show up, like who is this Castly Rock? Everybody's talking?
That's what I feel right now? I get you. Hm, okay, Well,
(26:09):
so we've got this commercial prosecco. That's pretty much what
we think of it today. Allegedly, the Bellini cocktail was
invented sometime the nineteen thirties our forties at Harry's Bar
in Venice, when someone perhaps the owner, got the idea
to put white peaches through a sieve and then top
it off with a crisp prosecco, which, by the way,
(26:32):
I remember the first time I had Billini and it
was I was in New York with one of the
fanciest people I've ever met, and I'm like, this country
bumpkin in New York and she was like, what do
you want to have? And I said pizza and she
was like no. So we went to a nice restaurant
and she ordered me a Billini and I've never forgotten it.
It was very delicious.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Heck yeah, heck yeah, that's like a fancy A good
Billini is so good.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Prosecco was still mostly a locally consumed wine up through
about the nineteen sixties. Then in nineteen sixty two a
consortium came together to push for a national denomination of
controlled origin for Coniano Valdo Biadine prosecco, which they received
(27:25):
in nineteen sixty nine. And that was probably the beginning
of the increase in production and exports due to know
this like general push of marketing and everything that ramped
up slowly through the nineteen eighties and nineties.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yes, but prosecco really enjoyed increasing popularity worldwide beginning in
the two thousands, helped along by the cheaper cost during
recession and trendy cocktails like the Apaol Sprits. In two
thousand and nine, producers in Italy were starting to get
nervous about the growing number of prosecco wines being produced elsewhere,
(28:06):
so to combat this they tried to establish an international
DOC similar to what France has with Champagne.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
This was partially Paris Hilton's fault, so in two thousand
and six she had the celebrity tie in with a
British drinks manufacturer that was producing canned sparkling wine and
these gold colored cans under the brand name Rich and
they were calling it a prosecco. Italian laws didn't cover
(28:37):
beverages sold in other countries. But like Italy was not
happy about this. They wanted this to not occur.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
No, so the producers of this wine came up with
a plan and it had a few steps, and it's
the source of a lot of our confusion throughout this huh.
So First they had to deal with the fact that,
according to European regulations, a grape name can't be granted
a doc so they removed the grape name prosecco and
(29:09):
pivoted to calling it glera instead, which did have some
historical use as a synonym. That wasn't out of nowhere,
but it was pretty it wasn't documented that much. Yeah, yeah,
uh huh. Meanwhile, they renamed a region Prosecco based on
a village of the same name located nearby Ish and
(29:29):
this was a telling choice because this village had not
been a producer of prosecco grapes and had been a
part of Slovenia until nineteen twenty two.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Yeah, it's like, in case I didn't explain the distance
well earlier, like it is over in the very corner
of Italy's northeast coast. Like it is about one hundred
and thirty kilometers, that's eighty miles away from the traditional
Prosecco grape growing region or now Glera grape growing region.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
So this created like a very broad and only partially
traditional growing area for Glara grapes to be made into prosecco,
and also shut other regions of Italy and beyond out
of using that name.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
And calls a lot of heated conversations and much confusion,
but all of this did work and they were granted
this protection in two thousand and nine. This means that
the grape name Prosecco is pretty much retired even like
in other countries through trade agreements with the EU.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
The interestingly, the then Minister of Agriculture who helped push
this through is from the Veneto region and was like
possibly motivated to help out his home team.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
M Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Well, the Coniano Valdo Biarne growing region was granted World
Heritage status by YENESCO in twenty nineteen and Unfortunately, the
increase in production since the creation of the DOCG for
this area has been environmentally taxing. There's also some concern
(31:22):
that climate change is coming for this region, so researchers
are investigating interventions to maintain soil quality and water availability.
And I wanted to put this next thing in here
just because it's cute. I mean it's cute regarding soil loss,
but so regarding soil loss due to the production boom
(31:42):
of prosecco. Science News reported in twenty nineteen that the
annual soil erosion footprint per bottle of prosecco from that
specific region has been quote about four point four kilograms,
roughly the mass of two chihuahuas. So thank you, thank
you for that sentence. Cassie Martin, writing for Science News
(32:06):
in twenty nineteen, I.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Always love when articles do that where they're like, it's
fifty two airplanes.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
You're like, whoa.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Rafts.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I definitely know what three hippos is, so okay, let's go.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Let's everything into perspective measured by hippos. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
They added that rose style to the DOOC in twenty twenty.
Apparently they had spent like three years developing best practices
because it wasn't really a traditional style in the area.
In twenty fourteen, stepping back a tiny bit, the PROSECCODOC
Consortium launched National Prosecco Week in the United States. This
is a floating week every year where they partner with
(32:53):
restaurants and retail to host all kinds of prosecco centric events,
from like tastings to cocktail competitions. It is a major
marketing campaign. It has like it had like two thousand
partners as of this year across the country. And just
like to really highlight like all of this has gone
(33:13):
on over the course of the past not quite twenty years,
and production just about quintupled from twenty nine to twenty
twenty one, from about one hundred and twenty million bottles
to seven hundred million bottles. And yeah, this wild boom
has created a number of environmental and economic concerns. You know,
(33:39):
that's kind of a separate episode. There's a lot going
on there. I think the the you could condense all
of the data and goings on to just say buy
small when you can.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, yeah, like we've been on a journey.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
I think prosecco feels like it's been on a journey
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
It surely has well listeners if you have any thoughts
on this are recipes if you've been to any of
these oh my goodness events or the where they grow
the grapes and everything like you were talking about earlier, Lauren.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yeah, Yeah, there's there's a whole like trail that you
can that you can take up through those hills and
it is supposed to be really gorgeous and cool and
I think it's one of the longer running like agritourism
wine trails, so pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Yeah, let us know, let us know. But I think
that's what we have to say about Prossecco for now.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Oh think, heck it is. We do already have some
listener mail for you, and we are going to get
into that as soon as we get back from one
more quick break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
And we're back.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with
listener cheers, cheers, cheers, bubbly cheers. Yes, which is appropriate
because we have an email about the Giant Pumpkin Regatta.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Yes, yes, with pictures, Sarah wrote, you asked, and I'm
here to deliver. I recently attended the Giant Pumpkin Regatta
in Tuilaton for the first time. Since I only moved
to Oregon a few months ago. I'm always on the
lookout for interesting local events, so when I learned about
the Giant Pumpkin Regatta, I knew I had to attend.
(35:55):
There were pumpkins used as bowling balls, professional artist carving
intricate pumpkin designs, and of course, paddling of giant pumpkins.
When I arrived in time for the second set of races,
some of the pumpkins were losing their sea worthiness. At
least one participant in each event went into the water
and had to be rescued by Ray's personnel via kayak
(36:17):
or paddle board. The pond is only a few feet deep,
as it is less of a lake and more of
a water feature in a shopping center. Hopefully you can
see the paddler wearing the inflatable chicken costume in my
second photo. I can, and I love it. Inflatable chicken costume.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, there it is, yep.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Yeah's eye catching.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Sort of sort of along the lines of like an
inflatable like like like rubber ducky or maybe you know
one of those like rubber chickens. Yeah, yeah, that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yes, it's excellent. Thank you so much for sending these.
The pumpkins look fantastic. They're so big. Yeah, I knew they.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Had to be, but heck yeah, also right, like, the
more information we can get about a giant pumpkin, for god,
We're happy to have all of it.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
That's yes, especially if costumes are involved. Oh goodness, excellent.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Oh huh, Christine wrote, I was listening to the Pumpkin
episode while getting some dinner. As it ended, the Spotify
randomizer played the Potato Salad episode. This was ironic given
it was what I was prepping. It did remind me
of a couple of episode suggestions I thought of recently.
The first of these is green Goddess dressing. The stressing
has become popular within the last few years here in Australia,
(37:42):
and I was vaguely wondering where it came from. I
was surprised to discover its possible origins date back to
San Francisco in the nineteen twenties. I'd be interested to
hear more about its history in the US. Meanwhile, there's
another research topic that's been added to the list, because
now I'm wondering just when it first appeared here. Second
episode suggestion is for a chef, a woman who's been
(38:03):
called the Julia Child of Chinese cooking, the Taiwanese chef
fupe Me. From what I can see, she really popularized
home cooking Chinese food. In the nineteen seventies. She wrote
a three volume Chinese and English cookbook. The styling is
very seventies. I have the first volume and I'm trying
to track down the second and third volumes without ordering
from Amazon, because Amazon is bad. She appeared on Taiwanese
(38:25):
TV for around forty years, and her show was also
popular in Japan. I found a few clips available on YouTube,
and I can see why she was so popular. She
has a very calm, precise presentation style without a lot
of ridiculous flourishes.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
These are great suggestions.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Oh cool, Yeah, yeah, I've been wondering about Green Goddess too.
I had never looked into it, but yeah, that sounds
very San Francisco in the nineteen twenties. In fact, now
that you mention it, I'm like, yeah, that's appropriate.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
I've wondered about it a few times throughout my life
because it sounds so fancy, and I'm like, oh green goddess, my,
oh my, But I don't think I encountered it until
I don't know, high school for me.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Yeah, probably around when I moved to Atlanta, So like, yeah,
like twenty eighth years ago.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Yeah, like I believe you. I believe it's been around
longer than that. But I was like, what's this fany
dressing item? And then yeah, you know we love doing
chefs and cookbooks anything like that.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Oh yeah. So yeah, And I hadn't heard of her before,
but she sounds awesome.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Yes, yes she does. So add them to our list
as well. Yes, And thank you to both of these
listeners for writing in. If you would like to write
to as you can, you can email us at hello
at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
We are also still currently on social media on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at savor pod, and we do hope to
hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
(40:14):
that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to save your protection of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm Annie Reese and I'm mourn Vulahbum and today we
have an episode for you about prosecco.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Yes, drink responsibly. Yes, yes, this one was a bit
too wrangle.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah. Sometime around i'd say eleven thirty pm last night,
I texted my best friend in like all title case,
I have read too much about prosecco.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
You went too far and that's how I feel. Yes, yes, well,
was there any particular reason it was on your mind?
Lord gosh, I you know, no, maybe sure? Uh day season.
Yeah yeah, and it's a delightful it's a delightful sparkling wine.
(01:08):
It is. And I actually associated with you, which is
funny given what we were talking about before we started
recording and your love of bringing a sparkling wine.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I'm really leaning into that
as like a personality trade.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Sure. Yes, but way back when I was too scared
to open champagne bottles or sparkling wine bottles, and you
taught me how you are the one that was like
I really love a good prosecco, Like you should check
out prosecco. And now it's one of my like, if
I want a sparkling line, it's a go to, So
(01:41):
thank you, Laura.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh yeah, yeah, you're welcome. Yeah, they're nice and bright
and clean and relatively inexpensive. Good times all around, good
times all around. Well people agree, gosh, we're going to
get into that. But National Prosecco Day is August thirteenth,
so that's apropos of nothing. Right now.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
You can see our sparkling Wine episode, which is the
very first one, so as always, please give you some grace.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, Champagne, yes, Champagne.
Speaker 1 (02:12):
Specifically, it was Champagne specifically. Yes, you're right, but we
did a video on sparkling wine. You can find our
video still up and the visuals are great in that one.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Super producer Tyler was our geographer I think for that.
So good. So if you're interested, it's really cool, like
you get to see the bubbles forming and really close
up and.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Oh yeah, we spent like a whole day in the
studio just filming bubbles.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
Yeah, it's a good time. I guess I also see
our other wine episodes. We've done quite a few at
this point. But I guess that does bring us to
our question. Prosecco. What is it? Well?
Speaker 2 (02:57):
Prosecco is a category of why finds, the most common
and popular of which is a white, sparkling wine with
these bright like fruity to floral flavors and crisp bubbles
and a low price tag. Prosecco is a protected term
in the European Union and other places through trade agreements,
designating wines produced in a particular region of Italy, primarily
(03:20):
from a variety of grapes now called glera. Prosecco's also
come in still, semi sparkling and sparkling rose varieties, and
can range in sweetness from brute mature, brute nature sure
unsweet to demisec which is like heck and sweet. The
price is kept down through the use of this pressurized
vat batch method to produce the bubbles after the wine
(03:43):
has been initially fermented, which is like a lot quicker
and less complex than producing the bubbles individually in bottle
or in bottle individually. I guess you're not producing the
bubbles individually, you're producing the bottels individually. Yes. The result
is a nice, clean, largely uncomplicated wine that's served cold
(04:03):
and is lovely for sipping on its own, you know,
maybe before or with a nice fresh meal, or for
topping off light cocktails, or mixing with like a mild
citrusy amari like apparol to amp up all the fruity
flavors in there. It's a really great a pair of
teefe or palate cleanser. It's like the memory of a
perfume that you remember liking as a teenager, or like
(04:26):
like being outdoors on a cool, sunny spring day and
smelling flowers blooming like somewhere over the next hill.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Yeah yeah, yeah, nice, like bright breezy. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
So let's talk about wine law.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Oh no, the scariest thing of all. Not too not
too deep, okay.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Sopersecco is a denomination of control origin, meaning that in
order to be labeled prosecco, a wine has to come
from this particular region, which is parts of northeast Italy
and be made under particular specifications. Prosecco doc wines come
in three main varieties, spumante or sparkling, frisante or semi sparkling,
(05:18):
and tranquilo or still. All have to be made with
at least eighty five percent glera grapes formerly called prosecco grapes,
which then undergo secondary fermentation in pressurized tanks called autoclaves
for at least thirty days. A rose style is now
part of the doc as well, but only in spumante.
It undergoes a secondary fermentation that is twice as long
(05:40):
for flavor related reasons. There is also a doc G,
and the G stands for guaranteed. These are more specialized
varieties made in specific areas, even more specific areas under
like additional regulations, and each bottle receives a traceable number
areas that can receive a DOCG. Are and bear with me.
(06:03):
I have not taken Italian Connellano, Valdel Biadine and then
the nearby Azolo, which are growing regions named for these
three towns near each other in the steep hills of
northeast Italy where prosecco production began. And I read on
A Somolia's blog that these are actually worth seeking out,
(06:24):
like if you have the money and the interest, So
I'm certainly going to be on the lookout and I'm
so curious now. Yes, yeah, there's also a subcategory carved
out for prosecco producers who choose to do the secondary
fermentation in bottle, but okay, let's talk about that. So
sparkling wines are produced by first fermenting grape juice called
must in the industry into like regular old still wine,
(06:47):
by letting yeasts eat sugars in the wine and then
poop alcohol and flavors yeastoo. And then you take that
base wine and add more sugar and yeast to set
off a secondary fermentation to create the carbon dioxide bubbles.
Some sparkling wines like champagne are given that sparkle during
(07:07):
a secondary fermentation straight in the individual bottles in which
they'll be sold, and this is called the metal Chimpinois
or Mattald traditionionale or the classic method. In contrast, most
sparkling proseccos are made via secondary fermentation in a single large, pressurized,
temperature controlled stainless steel vat called an autoclave, and then
(07:28):
it's bottled afterwards. This is called the Martinatti method or
the Charma method after its two primary inventors, and it
is way less fussy, less time consuming, and therefore less expensive,
which is part of why a doc prosecco can be
much cheaper than like bottle fermented sparkling wines, especially ones
(07:49):
with name recognition like Champagne, the Charma method also produces
slightly different flavors in the finished wines. Charma tends to
let like fruity flavors shine through, whereas bottle fermenting tends
to create sort of like bready flavors. Sometimes with the
Sharma method, you might conduct your initial fermentation of the
base wine inside the autoclave and then just kind of
(08:10):
like keep going. In more traditional prosecco methods, you decant
and refine the base wine to remove sediments and let
the flavors develop, and then taste and blend a few
base wines to come up with your final blend before
undergoing secondary fermentation. But either way, once you're ready for
that secondary fermentation, you add more yeasts and sugar for
those yeasts to eat, plus a bit more sugar depending
(08:32):
on how sweet you want the final wine to be,
then lock it into the autoclave, which, yes, is a
machine that can hold its contents at temperatures and pressures
different from the ambient temperature and pressure of a room.
It ferments for as long as it takes to reach
the desired level of bubbliness, and you can tell because
(08:53):
the pressure inside the tank will keep rising as the
yeasts eat the sugar and poop more carbon dioxide. So
like a semi sparkling prosecco might be stopped below three
bars of atmospheric pressure, a full spumante might go until
it hits like six bars. The typical secondary fermentation is
thirty to eighty days. The fermentation is then stopped by
(09:13):
bringing the temperature below freezing, you know, like zeros elsius
or thirty two farenheit to kill off the yeasts, and
then you can filter out the leaves which is the
dead yeasts and any other sentiments and bottle of wine,
all while maintaining pressure.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
That's pretty cool, super cool. I love that.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
Oh right, and this is not the episode in which
I explain how autoclaves work.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Oh blasts, You've done enough already. Oh thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I think I have, I really think I have. Oh okay,
but yeah, So the finished proseccos are like pale straw
blonde in color, or very pale pink in the case
of the rosees. Flavors you know, will vary from different
producer and from batch to batch, but you're typically looking
(10:02):
at like a bright, fruity wine reminiscent of pears and apples,
with a bit of floral spice, like like roses and
tobacco in there somewhere. And I'm not just saying that,
like there has been research that has isolated these common
flavor compounds from samples of prosecco. I am explaining to
you what those taste like or smell like. It is
(10:23):
the case may be. But yeah, so it's it's sort
of like like fresh tasting and is meant to be
consumed fresh.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Not aged. Well, what about the nutrition drink responsibly? Yeah, uh,
we do have some numbers for you.
Speaker 2 (10:42):
Oh my, heck, we do. Okay, So, prosecco is the
most sold type of sparkling wine in the world, and
producers are making a lot of it. In twenty twenty one,
over seven hundred million bottles of prosecco DOC and DOCG
were bottled. About eighty five percent to fifteen percent or
(11:05):
thereabouts is the ratio. That's a total of like five
point four million hecto leaders of wine. Wow. Yeah, I
don't know how much that that's too much.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
It's a lot, I can tell you that much.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
And that was in twenty twenty one. I think that
they're making even more at this point, Like in July
of twenty twenty four alone, they bottled half a million
hecto leaders and July is before the main harvest.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yeah, Italy consumes the most prosecco. After that, the United
States imports the most, about a quarter of exports, followed
by the UK, Germany and France. As of twenty twenty three,
prosecco exports were worth some one point eight billion dollar yep.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Prey lucrative, yep, yep.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
And there are some prosecco world records. There is a
Guinness record for the largest flute of prosecco. It was
achieved by the Stella Rosa Wines Company in twenty twenty two.
The glass in question was seven feet tall, that's about
two meters, and it contained a little bit over twenty
(12:26):
nine gallons of wine. That's one hundred and twelve point
two four liters to be precise, that's about one hundred
and seventy bottles worth of wine. This custom glass that
they built for it had had a round base and
like a short stem and a tapered cylindrical body, and
(12:48):
it did appear to be chilled. They served the wine
to something like four hundred people. A pop star by
the name of Ava Max was there. I don't know
who that is because I'm old, but.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
I don't know either because I'm out of touch.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
With our powers combined, we're lame. It's cool. I don't
need to know about every pop star. It's fine, but yeah,
they held interestingly to me. They held the event at
the iHeartRadio Theater in Burbank. You know, a shout out
to our corporate overlords, and it's a beautiful theater. I
(13:29):
worked there one time for the iHeart Podcast Awards and
got to speak into the wildly expensive sound system that
they've gotten there. It was pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
I would have died.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, yeah, I was like, do not touch anything.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Oh heck. Anyway.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
There's also a Guinness record for the largest Sprits cocktail.
It was an apparel Sprits made with seven hundred bottles
of prosecco, three hundred and fifty bottles of apparol, and
one hundred and eighty bottles of sparkling water, thus producing
a cocktail that was two hundred and seventy seven gallons
(14:13):
in volume, which is one thousand and fifty liters. Wow. Yeah,
this was achieved also in twenty twenty two in Italy.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Some math involved in there. Well, good listeners if you're
if you're wondering, and you're like, a lot of this
seems pretty recent. A lot of it is.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
It is, it really is. I had no idea, but
all right, we are going to get into that history
as soon as we get back from a quick break
for a word from our sponsors, and we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes,
(15:03):
thank you. So wine goes way back, you know, like
partially because the yeasts that ferment grape juice into wine
grow right on the skins of grapes, so like we
had wine a long time before anyone got around to
inventing the wheel, just for example.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yeah, yep. As we probably have made clear by now.
The history of prosecco, though, is difficult to bend down,
in part because of how long wine has been around.
But many speculate that it goes back to ancient Rome.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Yeah, because like, okay, certainly there were lots of vineyards
and varieties of grapes being worked with in ancient Rome
and specifically in what's now northeast Italy. In ancient Rome,
but part of the difficulty in pinning down the history
of prosecco lies in like the purposefully obfuscated historical definition
(16:00):
of prosecco for extremely modern marketing purposes. So what we're
dealing with here is like two separate but connected histories.
One is about wines from Prosecco, the place which is
this town on like the Adriatic Sea, right, it's on
the eastern border of the Adriatic Sea, near the city
(16:23):
called Trieste. And then on the other hand, you've got
a history about the wines that became what we understand Prosecco,
the wines to be today, which are from the western
border of the Adriatic Sea, and then like kind of
(16:45):
up northwest from there in the Veneto region of which
Venice is now the capital.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
It's very confusing.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
I love it. I love everything about it.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
It's great. Again, they were weren't thinking about as podcasters
They rarely are. Why well, there are multiple references that
may refer to wines from Prosecco, including one from our
friend Pliny the Elder. In first century CE, the wife
(17:19):
of Emperor Augustus was able to live to eighty six
thanks to the wines of Pusino, which is an older
name for what's now the village Prosecco. There were other
similar tales of people living long lives the aid of
these wines they are Their grapes were called ribola. They
were most likely still wines at the time, though.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Oh yeah yeah. Until improvements in glass making in like
the sixteen hundreds allowed for thicker, stronger bottles, wine was
generally still sparkling. Wines were usually accidental and actually pretty dangerous.
The bottles would often burst during aging, and you can
definitely see our Champagne episode for more on that.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Yeah, it's really interesting. Sometime in the sixteenth century, Italian
producers wanted to rename this wine to make it stand
out from other similarly named wines that were less expensive.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
And by this point that town Pasino near Trieste was
being called both Prosecco spelled differently, and prosek and it
had been since like the thirteen hundreds. Both of these
words come to us through the Slovenian language from like,
a proto Slavic word meaning something along the lines of
(18:35):
cutting a path through the woods, possibly with a connotation
of like for the sake of growing vineyards. Also, the
city of Trieste was in the habit of gifting like
a bunch of wine to Austria's nobles by the late
thirteen hundreds, so there were definitely like grapes and wines
(19:00):
being made here. They just were definitely not the same
grapes or wines that we associate with the name prosecco today.
Oh yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
I feel like we have like a surprise ending coming
for people who don't know, right. Yeah, Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:25):
Meanwhile, other wines to the west, so there are records
of white wines being produced around Valdo Biadine starting in
the twelve eighties CE, So there you go.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yes. When travel writer Finds Morrison visited Italy from England
in fifteen ninety three, he wrote about how that wine
that Plenty talked about had been renamed as prosecco and
that it was one of the finest wines Italy produced.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, and Morrison was in the Venice Ish area at
the time. But it's a little bit difficult to tell
which wine he was talking about, like stuff from the
western Hills or stuff from the Eastern seaboard, due to
historical differences in place names, and because I'm pretty sure
(20:16):
Plenty was talking about not prosecco, And I'm pretty sure
that Morrison was talking about kind of prosecco. Yeah, but
he might be confused. I might be confused. We all
might be confused.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
I think so.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
I tried really hard, and I can't be sure. So
mysteries histories. Oh, meanwhile, the wine makers in that western
Veneto region were experimenting with their grapes and they developed
a few planting techniques and sub varieties. Folks in Coniano
(20:59):
Valdo Yea in particular, really honed their ability to make
the most of the region's super steep hills for vineyards
from like sixteen hundreds through the eighteen hundreds, and confusingly enough,
these grapes came to be known as prosecco grapes.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
And I could not.
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Figure out why, total stab in the dark. But like
maybe if those wines from Trieste had like a good reputation,
like maybe the word prosecco spread with their fame and
just kind of got associated with other white wines and
white wine grapes and goings on. Maybe that's a guess.
(21:40):
I couldn't tell you.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
That makes sense, That makes sense to me. Yeah, maybe not.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Could have been a totally different, totally different origin story. Anyway,
two main sub varieties of prosecco grapes emerged. One that
is still in use today is lower yielding but gives
wine like nice spicy notes, and another is like higher
yielding and and that one was developed in the eighteen
sixties by one Count Balbi and is by far the
most grown type today. By the seventeen fifties, this Veneto
(22:11):
poet by the name of Valerian Canati, writing under a pseudonym,
he published a poem in which he really extolled the
virtues of a few wines from the region, including what
he called prosecco spelled the way that we do today,
which he described as having an apple bouquet. And this
is possibly the earliest mention of a wine from this
(22:34):
region with this spelling, and it does sound like flavors
that we know prosecco to have today, But the wines
being made there were still still until.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Until Some sources indicate that prosecco didn't become a bubbly
wine until the nineteenth century, when Antonio Carpene put the
wine through a secondary fermentation.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Yeah, Carpenet was as a wine chemist with interests in
like a modernizing the Italian wine industry in general and
b sparkling wine in particular. In eighteen seventy six, he
helped co found the first wine research center in Italy,
the School of Viticulture and Analogy in Coniano, and he
(23:22):
probably would have been working with like traditional in bottle
secondary fermentation at the time, but he debuted a sparkling
wine from the area under the name Champagne Italiano in
eighteen eighty.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
Okay, so let's go back and talk about the Charmont method,
or the method of doing the secondary fermentation part in
a pressurized tank.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah. So this method was developed by a few different
people over the course of the eighteen hundreds, and like
early nineteen hundreds, a French chemist Tuesdame, I didn't write
down because it didn't seem that important, and I've already
pronounced a lot of things. This episodisode started experimenting with
the idea around eighteen fifty two, using wooden tanks, but
it wasn't particularly like reliable or efficient. By eighteen ninety five,
(24:12):
an Italian wine scientist by the name of Federico Martinadi
refined and patented the process, still using wooden tanks three
tanks situation in nineteen oh seven. This was further refined
and patented again by French engineer Eugene Chamat, using enameled steel,
which would eventually lead to these stainless steel tanks we
(24:34):
use today. With all of these developments, the first commercial
sparkling wine, called a prosecco and in the style of
what we currently deemed prosecco, seems to have debuted from
the Veneto region in nineteen twenty four from those Carpenne
family vineyards.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
His nephew had gone on to perfect the method, and
after that it largely became known as a sparkling wine.
And I have to say this episode, I just had
a I had to take a beat because it's reminding
me of when I first started watching Game of Thrones
and I had no I had never read the books,
so I had no context for like all of these
(25:18):
places they're talking about, and I feel like I need
like a conspiracy board almost of like, Okay, this was here,
this was over here, they were doing this here. It's
just a lot going on there. Really is there?
Speaker 2 (25:31):
There?
Speaker 1 (25:31):
Really is there? Really really is You're like, hold on,
what are the river lands like? Where how does that.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Is the neck connected? I what, where's Dragonstone? I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
Okay, I thought castle Rock was a person for an
embarrassment one time, and I kept waiting for them to
show up, like who is this Castly Rock? Everybody's talking?
That's what I feel right now? I get you. Hm, okay, Well,
(26:09):
so we've got this commercial prosecco. That's pretty much what
we think of it today. Allegedly, the Bellini cocktail was
invented sometime the nineteen thirties our forties at Harry's Bar
in Venice, when someone perhaps the owner, got the idea
to put white peaches through a sieve and then top
it off with a crisp prosecco, which, by the way,
(26:32):
I remember the first time I had Billini and it
was I was in New York with one of the
fanciest people I've ever met, and I'm like, this country
bumpkin in New York and she was like, what do
you want to have? And I said pizza and she
was like no. So we went to a nice restaurant
and she ordered me a Billini and I've never forgotten it.
It was very delicious.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Heck yeah, heck yeah, that's like a fancy A good
Billini is so good.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
Prosecco was still mostly a locally consumed wine up through
about the nineteen sixties. Then in nineteen sixty two a
consortium came together to push for a national denomination of
controlled origin for Coniano Valdo Biadine prosecco, which they received
(27:25):
in nineteen sixty nine. And that was probably the beginning
of the increase in production and exports due to know
this like general push of marketing and everything that ramped
up slowly through the nineteen eighties and nineties.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yes, but prosecco really enjoyed increasing popularity worldwide beginning in
the two thousands, helped along by the cheaper cost during
recession and trendy cocktails like the Apaol Sprits. In two
thousand and nine, producers in Italy were starting to get
nervous about the growing number of prosecco wines being produced elsewhere,
(28:06):
so to combat this they tried to establish an international
DOC similar to what France has with Champagne.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
This was partially Paris Hilton's fault, so in two thousand
and six she had the celebrity tie in with a
British drinks manufacturer that was producing canned sparkling wine and
these gold colored cans under the brand name Rich and
they were calling it a prosecco. Italian laws didn't cover
(28:37):
beverages sold in other countries. But like Italy was not
happy about this. They wanted this to not occur.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
No, so the producers of this wine came up with
a plan and it had a few steps, and it's
the source of a lot of our confusion throughout this huh.
So First they had to deal with the fact that,
according to European regulations, a grape name can't be granted
a doc so they removed the grape name prosecco and
(29:09):
pivoted to calling it glera instead, which did have some
historical use as a synonym. That wasn't out of nowhere,
but it was pretty it wasn't documented that much. Yeah, yeah,
uh huh. Meanwhile, they renamed a region Prosecco based on
a village of the same name located nearby Ish and
(29:29):
this was a telling choice because this village had not
been a producer of prosecco grapes and had been a
part of Slovenia until nineteen twenty two.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Yeah, it's like, in case I didn't explain the distance
well earlier, like it is over in the very corner
of Italy's northeast coast. Like it is about one hundred
and thirty kilometers, that's eighty miles away from the traditional
Prosecco grape growing region or now Glera grape growing region.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:03):
So this created like a very broad and only partially
traditional growing area for Glara grapes to be made into prosecco,
and also shut other regions of Italy and beyond out
of using that name.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
And calls a lot of heated conversations and much confusion,
but all of this did work and they were granted
this protection in two thousand and nine. This means that
the grape name Prosecco is pretty much retired even like
in other countries through trade agreements with the EU.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
The interestingly, the then Minister of Agriculture who helped push
this through is from the Veneto region and was like
possibly motivated to help out his home team.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
M Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Well, the Coniano Valdo Biarne growing region was granted World
Heritage status by YENESCO in twenty nineteen and Unfortunately, the
increase in production since the creation of the DOCG for
this area has been environmentally taxing. There's also some concern
(31:22):
that climate change is coming for this region, so researchers
are investigating interventions to maintain soil quality and water availability.
And I wanted to put this next thing in here
just because it's cute. I mean it's cute regarding soil loss,
but so regarding soil loss due to the production boom
(31:42):
of prosecco. Science News reported in twenty nineteen that the
annual soil erosion footprint per bottle of prosecco from that
specific region has been quote about four point four kilograms,
roughly the mass of two chihuahuas. So thank you, thank
you for that sentence. Cassie Martin, writing for Science News
(32:06):
in twenty nineteen, I.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
Always love when articles do that where they're like, it's
fifty two airplanes.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
You're like, whoa.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Rafts.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
I definitely know what three hippos is, so okay, let's go.
Speaker 1 (32:22):
Let's everything into perspective measured by hippos. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
They added that rose style to the DOOC in twenty twenty.
Apparently they had spent like three years developing best practices
because it wasn't really a traditional style in the area.
In twenty fourteen, stepping back a tiny bit, the PROSECCODOC
Consortium launched National Prosecco Week in the United States. This
is a floating week every year where they partner with
(32:53):
restaurants and retail to host all kinds of prosecco centric events,
from like tastings to cocktail competitions. It is a major
marketing campaign. It has like it had like two thousand
partners as of this year across the country. And just
like to really highlight like all of this has gone
(33:13):
on over the course of the past not quite twenty years,
and production just about quintupled from twenty nine to twenty
twenty one, from about one hundred and twenty million bottles
to seven hundred million bottles. And yeah, this wild boom
has created a number of environmental and economic concerns. You know,
(33:39):
that's kind of a separate episode. There's a lot going
on there. I think the the you could condense all
of the data and goings on to just say buy
small when you can.
Speaker 1 (33:54):
Yeah, yeah, like we've been on a journey.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
I think prosecco feels like it's been on a journey
a little bit.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
It surely has well listeners if you have any thoughts
on this are recipes if you've been to any of
these oh my goodness events or the where they grow
the grapes and everything like you were talking about earlier, Lauren.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yeah, Yeah, there's there's a whole like trail that you
can that you can take up through those hills and
it is supposed to be really gorgeous and cool and
I think it's one of the longer running like agritourism
wine trails, so pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Yeah, let us know, let us know. But I think
that's what we have to say about Prossecco for now.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Oh think, heck it is. We do already have some
listener mail for you, and we are going to get
into that as soon as we get back from one
more quick break for a word from our sponsors.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
And we're back.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and we're back with
listener cheers, cheers, cheers, bubbly cheers. Yes, which is appropriate
because we have an email about the Giant Pumpkin Regatta.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
Yes, yes, with pictures, Sarah wrote, you asked, and I'm
here to deliver. I recently attended the Giant Pumpkin Regatta
in Tuilaton for the first time. Since I only moved
to Oregon a few months ago. I'm always on the
lookout for interesting local events, so when I learned about
the Giant Pumpkin Regatta, I knew I had to attend.
(35:55):
There were pumpkins used as bowling balls, professional artist carving
intricate pumpkin designs, and of course, paddling of giant pumpkins.
When I arrived in time for the second set of races,
some of the pumpkins were losing their sea worthiness. At
least one participant in each event went into the water
and had to be rescued by Ray's personnel via kayak
(36:17):
or paddle board. The pond is only a few feet deep,
as it is less of a lake and more of
a water feature in a shopping center. Hopefully you can
see the paddler wearing the inflatable chicken costume in my
second photo. I can, and I love it. Inflatable chicken costume.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, there it is, yep.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Yeah's eye catching.
Speaker 2 (36:42):
Sort of sort of along the lines of like an
inflatable like like like rubber ducky or maybe you know
one of those like rubber chickens. Yeah, yeah, that's yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:50):
Yes, it's excellent. Thank you so much for sending these.
The pumpkins look fantastic. They're so big. Yeah, I knew they.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Had to be, but heck yeah, also right, like, the
more information we can get about a giant pumpkin, for god,
We're happy to have all of it.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
That's yes, especially if costumes are involved. Oh goodness, excellent.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Oh huh, Christine wrote, I was listening to the Pumpkin
episode while getting some dinner. As it ended, the Spotify
randomizer played the Potato Salad episode. This was ironic given
it was what I was prepping. It did remind me
of a couple of episode suggestions I thought of recently.
The first of these is green Goddess dressing. The stressing
has become popular within the last few years here in Australia,
(37:42):
and I was vaguely wondering where it came from. I
was surprised to discover its possible origins date back to
San Francisco in the nineteen twenties. I'd be interested to
hear more about its history in the US. Meanwhile, there's
another research topic that's been added to the list, because
now I'm wondering just when it first appeared here. Second
episode suggestion is for a chef, a woman who's been
(38:03):
called the Julia Child of Chinese cooking, the Taiwanese chef
fupe Me. From what I can see, she really popularized
home cooking Chinese food. In the nineteen seventies. She wrote
a three volume Chinese and English cookbook. The styling is
very seventies. I have the first volume and I'm trying
to track down the second and third volumes without ordering
from Amazon, because Amazon is bad. She appeared on Taiwanese
(38:25):
TV for around forty years, and her show was also
popular in Japan. I found a few clips available on YouTube,
and I can see why she was so popular. She
has a very calm, precise presentation style without a lot
of ridiculous flourishes.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
These are great suggestions.
Speaker 2 (38:40):
Oh cool, Yeah, yeah, I've been wondering about Green Goddess too.
I had never looked into it, but yeah, that sounds
very San Francisco in the nineteen twenties. In fact, now
that you mention it, I'm like, yeah, that's appropriate.
Speaker 1 (38:52):
I've wondered about it a few times throughout my life
because it sounds so fancy, and I'm like, oh green goddess, my,
oh my, But I don't think I encountered it until
I don't know, high school for me.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
Yeah, probably around when I moved to Atlanta, So like, yeah,
like twenty eighth years ago.
Speaker 1 (39:17):
Yeah, like I believe you. I believe it's been around
longer than that. But I was like, what's this fany
dressing item? And then yeah, you know we love doing
chefs and cookbooks anything like that.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
Oh yeah. So yeah, And I hadn't heard of her before,
but she sounds awesome.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
Yes, yes she does. So add them to our list
as well. Yes, And thank you to both of these
listeners for writing in. If you would like to write
to as you can, you can email us at hello
at savorpod dot com.
Speaker 2 (39:53):
We are also still currently on social media on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at savor pod, and we do hope to
hear from you. Savor is production of iHeartRadio. For more
podcasts from my Heart Radio, you can visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Thanks as always to our super producers Dylan Fagan and
Andrew Howard. Thanks to you for listening, and we hope
(40:14):
that lots more good things are coming your way.
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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