Even teetotal hermits will have noticed the irresistible rise of prosecco. In the past three years, this sweet, affable, relatively inexpensive Italian fizz has surpassed champagne as the UK’s No 1 sparkling wine, and its popularity is still growing.
Prosecco will enjoy bumper sales this Christmas; according to Bloomberg, production is up 20% this year to cope with demand. Produced in north-east Italy around Treviso, prosecco has become austerity Britain’s ideal affordable luxury. According to retail analysts IRI, the UK market is now worth £365m a year.
Wine experts regard this with something between dismay and outright horror. Unlike champagne, which undergoes a secondary in-bottle fermentation, giving it a yeasty complexity, prosecco is fermented in huge tanks, then filtered to produce an easy-drinking drop.
Made from glera grapes, better prosecco has a refreshing fruity, flowery character; it is honeyed, but with a well-balanced dryness. The worst stuff is thin, characterless and marzipan-sweet. A tiny minority of producers make a traditional, hazy, bottle-fermented prosecco (col fondo), but you are far more likely to see prosecco served on tap in your local pub – a controversial dispensing method that has turbo-charged its expansion.
The lack of established marquee prosecco brands means that supermarket own-brands are significant players in this boom. The question is: which will put fizz into your festive celebrations? And which fall flat?
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Conegliano prosecco, £10 (all bottles listed are 75cl)
Proseccos from the Conegliano and Valdobbiadene growing areas, and those with DOCG status (denominazione di origine controllata e garanita), are generally considered to be superior wines. This Sainsbury’s prosecco bears that out. It is a touch thin in the mouth and, initially, all bright sweetness. But it is anchored by a lingering dryness and, while you must concentrate to get the full effect, fruit flavours: honeyed apricots, orange oils and sharper citrus notes are palpable and persistent.
8/10
Waitrose prosecco, £7.49
A sparkler that, apparently, “captures the Italian carnival mood”. Waitrose must mean one of those carnivals that is oppressively busy and deafeningly loud, where the rides are all over in two seconds. Flash and briskly fizzy, it tastes rather harsh initially, but that falls away – very quickly – to a sweetness reminiscent of Jelly Babies, only with less fruity complexity. Hints and whispers of tropical fruits and a certain sour appleyness come through eventually, though. Fundamentally, however, this leaves little impression. Quaffable, forgettable.
5/10
Lidl Allini prosecco spumante, £5.39
The labelling (brut, extra dry, dry), which is meant to indicate the sweetness of a sparkling wine, is confusing (bizarrely, brut is less sugary than extra dry) and unreliable, given how other flavours can offset your perception of sweetness. This “extra dry” Allini is another rapid assault of flavours – fleeting apple, pear and floral notes – but its dry finish has more definition and length than many supposedly drier brut proseccos. Inoffensive. Like a sharp Shloer.
5/10
Marks & Spencer prosecco, £8
This has a promising nose (enticing apricot, tangerine and lemon fragrances), but that promise goes awol in the glass. It is really fizzy, and that carbonation colludes with a similarly all-up-in-your-grill acidity – initially, at least – to exclude all other flavours. Beyond that, you will find a dead baseline of sweetness and a dialled-down dryness. Focus hard and you may pinpoint apple, pear and pineapple flavours, but, ultimately, this is a sweet, frothy bubblegum wine – an effervescent alcohol delivery system.
4/10
Tesco Finest Valdobbiadene prosecco superiore, £8
From the prized, vertiginous hills of Valdobbiadene, this DOCG prosecco is far less nuanced than its heritage suggests. It is brash, noisy and empty: a hugely fizzy, brief rush of acidity, ethanol and carbonated bite. Save for some weak, mirage-like green apple and unripe pear flavours, it is most notable for its comparatively assertive tart dryness. In that sense, it is closer to an unsophisticated budget champagne than the alcoholic fruit juice often sold as prosecco – which is no bad thing.
5/10
Co-op Specially Selected prosecco special cuvée, £7
Imagine, if you will, a liquidised packet of Haribo passed through a SodaStream, or the flashing reels of a fruit machine. Massively fizzy, this prosecco delivers a huge thwack of fruit, but in such a brief, stunted fashion – there is no aftertaste – that you will struggle to pin down what is going on. It is a bewildering, rather watery swirl of apple, pear and tropical fruits that lacks tart, dry punctuation.
4/10
Asda Extra Special prosecco brut, £6.50
This is a comparatively elegant and rare supermarket prosecco, in that it has an obviously creamy mouthfeel: it is plush where others feel like fizzy pop. It is faintly parma violets on the nose; smooth, rather than overcarbonated; less aggressive in its initial acidity. Its apple and fainter gooseberry flavours are distinctive without being OTT and, for all its teeth-itching flashes of sweetness, it boasts a persistent dry finish. A quiet, modest prosecco where so many are boorish, blinged-up bullies.
7/10
Morrison’s prosecco spumante, £7.50
An elusive hint of something yeasty in its aroma suggested a complexity that Morrison’s prosecco fails to deliver. It is very sharp, very sweet and very fizzy (it has a sherbet lemons vibe). Beyond that, it is bland to the extent that even mentioning its footling lime and apple flavours suggests there is more going on in this wine than is true. The most interesting thing about it? The label’s curveball suggestion that you should pair it with a Chinese takeaway.
3/10
Aldi Valdobbiadene prosecco superiore, £6.99
A DOCG “extra dry” prosecco, Aldi’s whiffs winningly of fresh green apples and is furiously fizzy. However, it remains interesting beyond that initial excitement. It tastes richer than most – creamy, almost biscuity – and while it is far sweeter – cloyingly so as it warms up – there is a notable dryness there, a tangy, acidic fruitiness that gets the saliva glands going like sauvignon blanc. It tastes like carbonated white wine: a dry white at first, a sweet German 1970s wine later.
6/10
