June 21, 2006
Wines of The Times
A Sip, a Smile, a Cheery FizzBy ERIC ASIMOV
HEY, you! Yeah, you, Mr. Mucketymuck, in your black power suit and shades. You never let 'em see you sweat, right? You and your air-conditioning turned all the way up — at home, in the car, in the office, in the beach house — you like to see the others shiver. You're the man, starched and creased. While around you people wilt and melt into puddles, you're triumphant, with your big, expensive cabernet in the dark, chilly steakhouse. You're not the kind of guy who'd ever be caught dead with a prosecco, are you? What is that, you ask, some kind of girly wine? Hey, did someone turn off the air-conditioning? Now what will you do? It's getting hot. It's getting sweaty. You can't take it, can you? You've got to go? Exit, stage left! Whew. Sorry about that, but I had to get rid of that guy. So annoying! And he does not understand summer, or summer drinking. Of course he wants a prosecco! Prosecco was made for summer, when you need something blithe, airy and carefree. It's a light summer dress, a summer thriller for the beach, an entertainment, not a burden. It's a social drink. You cannot brood over a prosecco. Not that I have anything against air-conditioning on a scorching day, but drinking prosecco is more like the gentle cooling of a rippling breeze, always leaving you wanting more. It's almost meant to be consumed outdoors in the heat or the shade, partly because it's low in alcohol, generally under 12 percent. It's refreshment, and it's stylish, too. Millions of Italians can't be wrong about that. Nobody drinks sparkling wine as regularly as the Italians do. It's made in almost every Italian wine region, and no meal seems complete unless it starts with a frothing glass of spumante, the melodious Italian word for sparkling wine. Among all the Italian sparkling wines, prosecco is rising rapidly in popularity, trailing in the United States only that old standby, Asti spumante, which takes its name from its region of origin. And why not? You could not ask for a better value in outdoor sparklers, in the garden, at the beach, up on the roof or under the boardwalk. The Dining section's tasting panel was thinking summery thoughts recently when we sampled 25 proseccos. We felt lighthearted, able to transcend the relatively gloomy confines of our Midtown office with the cheery hiss of bubbles in the air. Florence Fabricant and I were joined at the tasting by Piero Trotta, wine director at San Domenico, and Marco Albanese, wine director at Lupa. Let's be clear about what we were tasting. All of the wines were made predominantly of prosecco, the grape, sometimes mixed with a small percentage of pinot bianco, pinot grigio or chardonnay. Some, but not all, of these proseccos were actually, to be polysyllabically precise, Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene. That is the — here we go again — denominazione di origine controllata, or D.O.C., a designation earned if wines meet certain standards, for example which grapes are used, where they are grown and how the wines are aged.To earn the D.O.C. designation the grapes must come from the hilly area between the communes of Valdobbiadene and Conegliano in the Veneto, the region of Venice and Verona in northeastern Italy, and the wine must be made of at least 85 percent prosecco. And yet it's a tricky issue for consumers. Even if the grapes are not from the designated area, or if the winemakers do not adhere to regulations concerning the proportion of grapes used, the wine may still be called prosecco, but not Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene. In this case, the wine must be at least 75 percent prosecco. For example, Zardetto, one of the leading prosecco producers, made two wines that cracked our top 10 list. The Zeta was a prosecco D.O.C., one of only two vintage-dated bottles in our tasting, made from grapes grown in a single vineyard. It was our most expensive bottle, at $22. But Zardetto also makes a non-D.O.C. prosecco, which we liked practically as much. It sells for $10 a bottle, and was our best value.Mionetto, another leading producer, makes a half-dozen or more different proseccos, some D.O.C. and some not. We tasted two, both not, and they made our top 10, though truth be told, you can't even call Mionetto's Sergio a prosecco because it's only 70 percent prosecco. Does it really matter? After all, if you think too hard about prosecco, you are defeating the purpose of this breezy, cheerful wine.Go off with Mr. Mucketymuck — no prosecco for you!Whatever the source or proportion of the grapes, the wines are made in the same way, and in the end, all of these bottles will be found on the prosecco shelf at the wine shop, regardless of what they are called. Almost all proseccos rely on the Charmat process, a large-scale method of producing sparkling wines, named for the French inventor, Eugène Charmat. The process shortcuts the costly in-the-bottle secondary fermentation that gives Champagne its fizz, price tag and sense of gravitas. Champagne needs more time to evolve than the more accessible prosecco, and generally seems more austere than friendly. All right, so our top four wines were all prosecco D.O.C.'s. Perhaps this is an indication of potential quality, though not all the D.O.C. proseccos we tasted made our list. Other variables go into the bottles as well. Some are labeled brut, and are counterintuitively liable to be drier than those labeled extra dry, which may have a slight sweetness to them. Either way, balance is the most important thing. Though the dry, tangy and refreshing prosecco brut from Drusian was our favorite, we liked the off-dry, peachy Nino Franco Rustico just about as well. Fairly often I used to see proseccos labeled frizzante, indicating that the wine had a soft, lightly fizzy quality to it, as opposed to the full-throttle bubbles of those labeled spumante. The frizzantes often came in traditional bottles in which the corks were tied to the bottleneck with string. Although neither the Zardetto Zena nor the Mionetto Brut was labeled frizzante, both had bubbles with a soft texture, reminiscent of frizzantes, that we found very appealing.It's hard to think of another wine with the lightness and easygoing grace of a prosecco — maybe a rosé. Aside from garden parties, proseccos, like rosés, make excellent aperitifs. One glass, two at most, and you are ready to move on. Unless, of course, you are making Bellinis, the cocktails of sparkling wine and peach purée, for which prosecco is the ideal ingredient. Now some people may feel prosecco is misunderstood and demeaned. They may believe that prosecco deserves to be taken more seriously, that all this relaxed and frothy talk does not fully acknowledge prosecco's value. To this I say, ridiculous! On the contrary, what is underestimated are the easy, breezy qualities that prosecco so effortlessly epitomizes. Far more wines are taken too seriously than not seriously enough. Complexity? Depth? Levels of extract? Forget about all that stuff, it's way too hot. Instead, kick off your shoes and socks and run through the grass barefoot. Dive through the waves until the salt brine cakes on your back. Jump into the pool and make a splash. Sing off-key and laugh. Bite into a peach and let the juice run down your chin. That's what prosecco is all about, and if you ask me, that's pretty good. Tasting Report: Millions of Italians Can't be WrongDrusian D.O.C. Brut NV
$17
***
What more could you ask for in a prosecco? Dry, tangy and refreshing with citrus and floral flavors. (Importer: Panebianco, New York) Nino Franco Rustico D.O.C. NV
$15
***
Off-dry, yet well balanced with peach and mineral aromas and flavors. (Vin Divino, Chicago)Aneri D.O.C. Brut NV
$20
**½
Unusual, yet dry and refreshing, with aromas of citrus, minerals and anise. (Palm Bay Imports, Boca Raton, Fla.) Zardetto Zeta D.O.C. 2004
$22
**½
Lightly sparkling, with floral and peach aromas; off-dry, yet balanced. (Winebow, New York)BEST VALUE
Zardetto Conegliano Brut NV
$10
**½
Peach, apricot and floral aromas; dry and very refreshing. (Winebow, New York) Mionetto Sergio Extra Dry NV
$18
**½
More full-bodied than most but balanced and creamy, with mellow nut and citrus flavors. (Mionetto U.S.A., New York)Vallis Mareni Ombra Brut Spumante NV
$10
**
Lightly floral, crisp and refreshing. (Omni Wines, New York)Mionetto Brut NV
$11
**
Softly sparkling, with persistent lemon, apple and nut flavors. (Mionetto U.S.A., New York)Riondo D.O.C. Extra Dry NV
$13
**
Off dry, with pretty pear and apple flavors. (Wine Source Selections, South Kearny, N.J.)Bisol D.O.C. Crede Brut NV
$14
**
Not quite dry, with citrus and floral flavors. (Vias Imports, New York)
Wines of The Times
A Sip, a Smile, a Cheery FizzBy ERIC ASIMOV
HEY, you! Yeah, you, Mr. Mucketymuck, in your black power suit and shades. You never let 'em see you sweat, right? You and your air-conditioning turned all the way up — at home, in the car, in the office, in the beach house — you like to see the others shiver. You're the man, starched and creased. While around you people wilt and melt into puddles, you're triumphant, with your big, expensive cabernet in the dark, chilly steakhouse. You're not the kind of guy who'd ever be caught dead with a prosecco, are you? What is that, you ask, some kind of girly wine? Hey, did someone turn off the air-conditioning? Now what will you do? It's getting hot. It's getting sweaty. You can't take it, can you? You've got to go? Exit, stage left! Whew. Sorry about that, but I had to get rid of that guy. So annoying! And he does not understand summer, or summer drinking. Of course he wants a prosecco! Prosecco was made for summer, when you need something blithe, airy and carefree. It's a light summer dress, a summer thriller for the beach, an entertainment, not a burden. It's a social drink. You cannot brood over a prosecco. Not that I have anything against air-conditioning on a scorching day, but drinking prosecco is more like the gentle cooling of a rippling breeze, always leaving you wanting more. It's almost meant to be consumed outdoors in the heat or the shade, partly because it's low in alcohol, generally under 12 percent. It's refreshment, and it's stylish, too. Millions of Italians can't be wrong about that. Nobody drinks sparkling wine as regularly as the Italians do. It's made in almost every Italian wine region, and no meal seems complete unless it starts with a frothing glass of spumante, the melodious Italian word for sparkling wine. Among all the Italian sparkling wines, prosecco is rising rapidly in popularity, trailing in the United States only that old standby, Asti spumante, which takes its name from its region of origin. And why not? You could not ask for a better value in outdoor sparklers, in the garden, at the beach, up on the roof or under the boardwalk. The Dining section's tasting panel was thinking summery thoughts recently when we sampled 25 proseccos. We felt lighthearted, able to transcend the relatively gloomy confines of our Midtown office with the cheery hiss of bubbles in the air. Florence Fabricant and I were joined at the tasting by Piero Trotta, wine director at San Domenico, and Marco Albanese, wine director at Lupa. Let's be clear about what we were tasting. All of the wines were made predominantly of prosecco, the grape, sometimes mixed with a small percentage of pinot bianco, pinot grigio or chardonnay. Some, but not all, of these proseccos were actually, to be polysyllabically precise, Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene. That is the — here we go again — denominazione di origine controllata, or D.O.C., a designation earned if wines meet certain standards, for example which grapes are used, where they are grown and how the wines are aged.To earn the D.O.C. designation the grapes must come from the hilly area between the communes of Valdobbiadene and Conegliano in the Veneto, the region of Venice and Verona in northeastern Italy, and the wine must be made of at least 85 percent prosecco. And yet it's a tricky issue for consumers. Even if the grapes are not from the designated area, or if the winemakers do not adhere to regulations concerning the proportion of grapes used, the wine may still be called prosecco, but not Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene. In this case, the wine must be at least 75 percent prosecco. For example, Zardetto, one of the leading prosecco producers, made two wines that cracked our top 10 list. The Zeta was a prosecco D.O.C., one of only two vintage-dated bottles in our tasting, made from grapes grown in a single vineyard. It was our most expensive bottle, at $22. But Zardetto also makes a non-D.O.C. prosecco, which we liked practically as much. It sells for $10 a bottle, and was our best value.Mionetto, another leading producer, makes a half-dozen or more different proseccos, some D.O.C. and some not. We tasted two, both not, and they made our top 10, though truth be told, you can't even call Mionetto's Sergio a prosecco because it's only 70 percent prosecco. Does it really matter? After all, if you think too hard about prosecco, you are defeating the purpose of this breezy, cheerful wine.Go off with Mr. Mucketymuck — no prosecco for you!Whatever the source or proportion of the grapes, the wines are made in the same way, and in the end, all of these bottles will be found on the prosecco shelf at the wine shop, regardless of what they are called. Almost all proseccos rely on the Charmat process, a large-scale method of producing sparkling wines, named for the French inventor, Eugène Charmat. The process shortcuts the costly in-the-bottle secondary fermentation that gives Champagne its fizz, price tag and sense of gravitas. Champagne needs more time to evolve than the more accessible prosecco, and generally seems more austere than friendly. All right, so our top four wines were all prosecco D.O.C.'s. Perhaps this is an indication of potential quality, though not all the D.O.C. proseccos we tasted made our list. Other variables go into the bottles as well. Some are labeled brut, and are counterintuitively liable to be drier than those labeled extra dry, which may have a slight sweetness to them. Either way, balance is the most important thing. Though the dry, tangy and refreshing prosecco brut from Drusian was our favorite, we liked the off-dry, peachy Nino Franco Rustico just about as well. Fairly often I used to see proseccos labeled frizzante, indicating that the wine had a soft, lightly fizzy quality to it, as opposed to the full-throttle bubbles of those labeled spumante. The frizzantes often came in traditional bottles in which the corks were tied to the bottleneck with string. Although neither the Zardetto Zena nor the Mionetto Brut was labeled frizzante, both had bubbles with a soft texture, reminiscent of frizzantes, that we found very appealing.It's hard to think of another wine with the lightness and easygoing grace of a prosecco — maybe a rosé. Aside from garden parties, proseccos, like rosés, make excellent aperitifs. One glass, two at most, and you are ready to move on. Unless, of course, you are making Bellinis, the cocktails of sparkling wine and peach purée, for which prosecco is the ideal ingredient. Now some people may feel prosecco is misunderstood and demeaned. They may believe that prosecco deserves to be taken more seriously, that all this relaxed and frothy talk does not fully acknowledge prosecco's value. To this I say, ridiculous! On the contrary, what is underestimated are the easy, breezy qualities that prosecco so effortlessly epitomizes. Far more wines are taken too seriously than not seriously enough. Complexity? Depth? Levels of extract? Forget about all that stuff, it's way too hot. Instead, kick off your shoes and socks and run through the grass barefoot. Dive through the waves until the salt brine cakes on your back. Jump into the pool and make a splash. Sing off-key and laugh. Bite into a peach and let the juice run down your chin. That's what prosecco is all about, and if you ask me, that's pretty good. Tasting Report: Millions of Italians Can't be WrongDrusian D.O.C. Brut NV
$17
***
What more could you ask for in a prosecco? Dry, tangy and refreshing with citrus and floral flavors. (Importer: Panebianco, New York) Nino Franco Rustico D.O.C. NV
$15
***
Off-dry, yet well balanced with peach and mineral aromas and flavors. (Vin Divino, Chicago)Aneri D.O.C. Brut NV
$20
**½
Unusual, yet dry and refreshing, with aromas of citrus, minerals and anise. (Palm Bay Imports, Boca Raton, Fla.) Zardetto Zeta D.O.C. 2004
$22
**½
Lightly sparkling, with floral and peach aromas; off-dry, yet balanced. (Winebow, New York)BEST VALUE
Zardetto Conegliano Brut NV
$10
**½
Peach, apricot and floral aromas; dry and very refreshing. (Winebow, New York) Mionetto Sergio Extra Dry NV
$18
**½
More full-bodied than most but balanced and creamy, with mellow nut and citrus flavors. (Mionetto U.S.A., New York)Vallis Mareni Ombra Brut Spumante NV
$10
**
Lightly floral, crisp and refreshing. (Omni Wines, New York)Mionetto Brut NV
$11
**
Softly sparkling, with persistent lemon, apple and nut flavors. (Mionetto U.S.A., New York)Riondo D.O.C. Extra Dry NV
$13
**
Off dry, with pretty pear and apple flavors. (Wine Source Selections, South Kearny, N.J.)Bisol D.O.C. Crede Brut NV
$14
**
Not quite dry, with citrus and floral flavors. (Vias Imports, New York)