Since 2009 Prosecco is a place, not a grape
Until 2009 Prosecco was the name of the grape, and anyone anywhere could plant it and call the result Prosecco. The reform of that year inverted the logic: the variety was officially renamed Glera, and Prosecco became a geographical denomination, anchored among other things to the village of Prosecco near Trieste. Since then the name is protected as an origin.
In the same move the Prosecco DOC was extended across nine provinces of the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and it is now one of the most productive appellations in Europe. At the same time the two historic hill zones were promoted to DOCG. That is where the confusion comes from: the same word on a label covers very different situations.
The three names to recognise
Prosecco DOC is the broad appellation, largely flat land, recognisable because the label simply reads "Prosecco DOC", sometimes with Treviso or Trieste added. Glera, minimum 85 per cent.
Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG is the hill band in the province of Treviso, fifteen communes of very steep slopes worked by hand; the landscape has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2019. Asolo Montello Prosecco Superiore DOCG is the second DOCG zone, on the slopes facing the Montello.
The practical rule: if the label carries Conegliano, Valdobbiadene or Asolo together with "Superiore", you are on a hillside DOCG. If it says only "Prosecco DOC", you are on the large appellation.
Rive and Cartizze: the finest grain
Within Conegliano Valdobbiadene there are forty-three Rive, corresponding to individual slopes or communes; claiming one obliges hand harvesting and a stated vintage. They are Prosecco's equivalent of a cru, and their purpose is to say the fruit came from one precise hillside rather than from the whole appellation.
Cartizze is the recognised summit: roughly 108 hectares above Valdobbiadene, between San Pietro di Barbozza, Santo Stefano and Saccol. It is labelled Valdobbiadene Superiore di Cartizze and is traditionally made in the Dry style, therefore sweeter than Brut. That startles anyone who assumes the most prestigious bottle must also be the driest: here the tradition says otherwise.
Styles, sweetness, and the version few people know
Prosecco exists as spumante, as frizzante and, rarely, as a still wine. On sweetness the European scale applies, and Extra Dry — sweeter than Brut — is the historic style of Valdobbiadene, what these hills made long before the international market decided dry meant serious.
Since 2020 there has been Prosecco DOC Rosé: Glera with a proportion of Pinot Noir fermented as a red, necessarily vintage-dated and with a longer minimum second fermentation than white Prosecco requires. It is a recent, regulated category, not a marketing invention.
Finally there is col fondo, or sur lie: refermented in the bottle, undisgorged, cloudy, dry, with the yeast deposit still there. This is the farmhouse style that predates the pressurised tank, kept alive in family cellars and now back on sale. Anyone expecting the polished Prosecco of a bar finds it disconcerting; anyone curious where this wine came from starts there.