The fight between Italy and Croatia over the name Prosecco gets ready to pop



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Winemaker Milos Skabar, center, works at his vineyard of the Prosekar variety in Prosecco, near Trieste, Italy, on Oct. 15. Italy has pledged to defend the name of the popular sparkling wine Prosecco as Croatia petitions the European Union to allow its winemakers to call their sweet dessert wine Prosek.

Antonio Calanni/AP




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«Prosekar wine is the original, because it was born 300 years before Prosecco,» said Skabar, surveying his vineyard with a port view, the hills of Slovenia a dark green line in the distance. «So, it is the father of Prosekar, Prosecco, Prosek and all the rest.»

At stake in the battle is not only the sanctity of Prosecco, the world’s top-selling wine, but also the European Union’s system of geographical designations created to guarantee the distinctiveness and quality of artisanal food, wine and spirits, defenders say. That market is worth nearly 75 billion euros ($87 billion) annually — half of it in wines, according to a 2020 study by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch.

Italy says Prosek will cause confusion; Croatia disagrees

The Italian government has pledged to defend Prosecco’s name, and other makers of protected products with distinct geographic roots, from Italy’s Parmigiano Reggiano cheese to France’s Champagne, are mobilizing as the European Commission prepares to deliberate on Croatia’s petition to label its niche wine with the traditional Prosek name.

«The problem for us is not that these producers, who make a very small number of bottles, enter our market. But it is the confusion it could generate among consumers,» said Luca Giavi, general director of the Prosecco DOC consortium, which promotes Prosecco and assures the quality of wines under the EU’s «denomination of controlled origin» designation.


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Prosecco has annual sales of 2.4 billion euros ($2.8 billion), most of it exported. «Everyone perceives the situation as a threat to our success,» producer Stefano Zanette said, with worldwide buyers possibly not able to distinguish between the similar names.

Croatia argues that the Prosek name and tradition is centuries old, predating Prosecco’s protections in the EU system, and that its place as a dessert wine makes it distinct from Prosecco.

«Consumers will not be confused by this,» Ladislav Ilcic, a Croatian member of the European Parliament, said in a recent debate. «Prosek should legitimately receive the protected denomination of origin, and producers should have full access to markets.»

Besides etymological roots linked to the village of Proseecco, the wines have little in common

The Brussels-based European Federation of Origin Wines is preparing a brief to support Italy. It believes the European Commission’s decision to hear the case has defied its own battle to get other nations and trading blocs to recognize the EU’s system of geographic designations.

The dispute, which will be decided in the coming months, is likely to turn on Prosecco’s origin story, emanating from the bilingual Italian village of Prosecco near the Slovenian border above Trieste, where winemaking once flourished.

It is here, say the ethnic Slovene Italians who make Prosekar, that the grape known as Glera — the basis of both Prosecco and Prosekar — originated.

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Winemaker Vesna Bukavec pours a Prosekar wine in Prosecco, near Trieste, Italy, on Oct. 15.

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Winemaker Stefano Zanette harvests grape of the Prosecco variety in Colle Umberto, Italy, on Oct. 15.

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A view of a home number on a street in Prosecco, the bilingual Italian village near the Slovenian border where the grape that is the basis of both Prosecco and Prosekar originated.

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A view of a home number on a street in Prosecco, the bilingual Italian village near the Slovenian border where the grape that is the basis of both Prosecco and Prosekar originated.

Antonio Calanni/AP

Prosecco defenders say the name Prosek has never been uniformly applied and came to mean even 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 called «of Prosecco» to indicate their village of origin, wine historian Stefano Cosma said. «By the 1800s, it was already a sparkling wine,» he said.

In present-day Prosecco, Prosekar winemakers hope that because the EU has included the village itself in the geographic territory for the protected wine, they might have a shot at expanding their market for Prosekar, which they say was first made in 1548.

Prosek and Prosekar makers say they are outlaws for now, but tolerated

But because their wine has not earned the EU designation, Prosekar producers are banned as much as Prosek makers from using their name. They so far haven’t been challenged as long as they don’t sell beyond Trieste, said Andrej Bole, a sixth-generation Prosekar producer.

«We are outlaws,» Bole said. But «for now, we are tolerated.»

They are working with the Prosecco consortium to help their wine earn the coveted origin insignia, which is awarded with each vintage. The question of legally using the Prosekar name won’t be decided until that hurdle is cleared, the head of the consortium said.

«We have to look at the European norms,» Giavi said. «But there is that option, which we don’t mind.»



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