Prosecco: What It Is, How It's Made and How to Choose a Bottle

Prosecco is a sparkling white wine from northeast Italy, made mainly from the Glera grape. It is light, fresh and fruity, usually less expensive than Champagne, and it comes in styles from bone dry to sweet. This guide explains where Prosecco comes from, what DOC, DOCG, Rive and Cartizze mean on the label, how the bubbles get in, and why “Extra Dry” is sweeter than “Brut”.

What Prosecco tastes like

The Prosecco DOC consortium describes the wine as fresh and lively, with aromas of white flowers (it names acacia, wisteria and jasmine) and fruit. Young wines lean toward green apple and lemon; a few months later the consortium expects riper notes such as yellow apple, pear and grapefruit. The bubbles are meant to feel soft rather than aggressive, carried by bright acidity, the mouth-watering freshness that makes a wine taste crisp.

Trait	Typical Prosecco
Color	Pale straw with greenish tints
Bubbles	Fine and light; frizzante versions are gentler
Sweetness	From bone dry (Brut Nature) to sweet (Demi-sec); Brut and Extra Dry are the most common
Alcohol	Minimum 11% for spumante, 10.5% for frizzante and still (consortium rules)
Main aromas	White flowers, green apple, pear, lemon

In our view, Prosecco’s big strength is that it tastes of the grape rather than of the cellar. If you want toasty, bready bubbles, that is Champagne territory; if you want something bright and fruity for a spritz or a brunch, Prosecco is the easier choice.

The Glera grape and where Prosecco is made

Glera is a white grape that the consortium says has been grown in northeast Italy since Roman times. Prosecco DOC rules require at least 85% Glera. The remaining 15% can come from local grapes (Verdiso, Bianchetta Trevigiana, Perera, Glera Lunga) and from Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio and Pinot Nero, the last one made as a white wine.

The name itself is old. The Conegliano Valdobbiadene consortium dates the first written mention of “Prosecco” as a wine to 1754, and the first link between Prosecco and the Conegliano Valdobbiadene hills to 1772.

Prosecco DOC

DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) is an Italian protected designation of origin with legal production rules. The Prosecco DOC was created by a ministerial decree on July 17, 2009. It covers nine provinces: Treviso, Venice, Vicenza, Padua and Belluno in Veneto, and Gorizia, Pordenone, Trieste and Udine in Friuli Venezia Giulia.

A few rules worth knowing, from the consortium’s production regulation:

• Maximum yield is 18 tonnes of grapes per hectare.
• Winemaking, the second fermentation and bottling must take place inside the production area, with narrow exceptions.
• “Prosecco DOC Treviso” or “Trieste” on the label means the grapes were grown and the wine made and bottled entirely within that province.
• Prosecco DOC comes only in glass bottles with an official government seal on the neck, according to the consortium’s technical sheet.

The consortium reports that 82% of Prosecco DOC is sparkling (spumante), 17% semi-sparkling (frizzante) and 1% still.

Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG

DOCG adds “e Garantita” (guaranteed) and is Italy’s top tier of designation. The hills between the towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene in the province of Treviso received DOC status on April 2, 1969, covering 15 communes, and became Italy’s 44th DOCG on August 1, 2009, according to its consortium. The sparkling wines are labeled Prosecco Superiore.

Two special names within this DOCG:

• Rive. There are 43 Rive, each a single commune or part of one, usually with the steepest vineyards. Grapes must be picked by hand, yields are capped at 13 tonnes per hectare, and the vintage must appear on the label.
• Cartizze. A 107-hectare (about 264-acre) area in Valdobbiadene, in the hamlets of San Pietro di Barbozza, Santo Stefano and Saccol, with its own rules since 1969 and a lower maximum yield of 12 tonnes per hectare. Labels read “Superiore di Cartizze”.

Asolo Prosecco DOCG

The second, smaller DOCG lies around the hill town of Asolo, also in Treviso province, and also dates from 2009. Italian Wine Central’s summary of its rules lists at least 85% Glera, with all sparkling wines entitled to the “Superiore” name and a minimum of 11% alcohol for the spumante.

In our view, a DOCG Superiore is the easiest step up in quality, and it often costs only a few dollars more than a DOC.

How Prosecco is made

Most Prosecco gets its bubbles from the Martinotti method, also called the Charmat or tank method. Club Oenologique’s history credits Italian enologist Federico Martinotti with developing it in 1895 and Frenchman Eugène Charmat with patenting the pressurized steel tanks in 1910.

1. Base wine. Glera grapes are pressed and fermented into a still, dry white wine. Some producers leave it on its lees (spent yeast) for months to add texture.
2. Second fermentation in a tank. The base wine goes into a sealed, pressurized tank called an autoclave, with yeast and sugar. The carbon dioxide from this fermentation can’t escape, so it dissolves into the wine.
3. Stopping at the right moment. The wine is chilled to stop fermentation when it reaches the target pressure and sweetness.
4. Filtering and bottling under pressure.

Club Oenologique says the tank stage lasts at least 30 days, commonly two to three months in Conegliano Valdobbiadene, and sometimes seven to eight months for a fuller style. The reason producers prefer the tank: it keeps Glera’s delicate floral and fruit aromas front and center, rather than adding the bready flavors that long aging on yeast in the bottle brings.

Frizzante, Sui Lieviti and Col Fondo

• Spumante is fully sparkling. Frizzante is semi-sparkling: the DOCG consortium sets a maximum of 2.5 bar of pressure for frizzante against at least 3 bar for its sparkling wine.
• Sui Lieviti (“on the lees”) is the older style, re-fermented in the bottle and left with its yeast sediment, so it looks slightly cloudy. The DOCG consortium says it is made as Brut Nature, and you may also see it called col fondo.

Prosecco Rosé

Prosecco DOC Rosé is the newest category. The consortium’s rules: Glera with 10% to 15% Pinot Nero, made red so it adds color; at least 60 days of second fermentation in the tank; always sparkling and in the drier styles (Brut Nature to Extra Dry); and labeled Millesimato with the vintage, with at least 85% of the grapes from that year. Sales may start on January 1 after the harvest.

How to read the label

Sweetness is the word that matters most, and it runs the opposite way from what most people expect. These are the consortium’s ranges for Prosecco DOC Spumante, in grams of sugar per liter:

Label term	Sugar (g/L)	What it tastes like
Brut Nature	0 to 3	Bone dry
Extra Brut	0 to 6	Very dry
Brut	less than 12	Dry
Extra Dry	12 to 17	Off-dry, a touch of sweetness
Dry	17 to 32	Noticeably sweet
Demi-sec	32 to 50	Sweet

The right-hand column is our plain-English reading. The consortium’s own sheet calls Extra Dry the traditional style, ideal for an aperitif, and Brut the modern style that suits a wider range of food.

Other words you will see:

• DOC / DOCG and the area name (Prosecco, Treviso, Trieste, Conegliano Valdobbiadene, Asolo).
• Superiore: only on DOCG sparkling wine.
• Millesimato plus a year: at least 85% of the grapes from that vintage. Most Prosecco is non-vintage (NV), a blend of harvests.
• Rive di [place] or Cartizze: the special DOCG sites described above.
• Vegan logos: not every Prosecco is vegan, because some producers use animal-derived fining agents. Our guide to vegan Prosecco shows which brands say so on their own sites.

Food pairing

Prosecco’s acidity, light body and bubbles make it a natural partner for salty, fried and lightly sweet food. Bubbles and acid cut through fat; a little residual sugar softens chili heat.

Food	Style we’d pick	Why
Fried snacks, tempura, chips	Brut	Acid and bubbles cut the oil
Prosciutto and melon	Extra Dry	A touch of sweetness matches the melon, salt makes the fruit pop
Sushi and raw fish	Brut or Extra Brut	Light enough not to swamp delicate fish
Thai or Sichuan dishes	Extra Dry	Residual sugar tames the heat
Fruit tarts, panettone	Dry or Demi-sec	The wine should be at least as sweet as the dessert
Aperol spritz, mimosas, bellinis	Brut or Extra Dry	Cheap and fruity is the point; save the DOCG for drinking on its own

Good-value bottles to try

Our full list of the best Prosecco under $20 has four critic-rated picks. Two stand out, both checked against our Blue Book Value method:

• Bisol Jeio Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG Brut NV. 91 points from Wine Enthusiast (Kerin O’Keefe, December 2021, as cited by Zachys); The Liquor Barn cites 92 from Kerin O’Keefe and 91 from James Suckling. Median 91. About $15 to $20, checked October 2026 ($14.99 at The Liquor Barn; $19.95 regular price at Zachys). Great Value. A dry DOCG at a DOC price.
• Zardetto Prosecco Brut NV (DOC). 90 points from Vinous (Eric Guido, December 2024) and Wine Enthusiast (Jeff Porter, December 2022), both as cited by J.J. Buckley, and 90 from James Suckling (October 2021, as cited by Wine on Sale). Median 90. About $17 to $18, checked October 2026 ($16.99 regular price at 67 Wine; $17.95 at Wine on Sale). Great Value. Our pick for spritzes and a crisp aperitif.

Because these wines are non-vintage, the scores may come from earlier releases than the bottle on the shelf.

How to serve it

• Temperature. The Prosecco DOC consortium recommends 6 to 8°C (42 to 46°F) for serving and 8 to 12°C (46 to 53°F) at most for storage. Too cold and the fruit goes quiet.
• Glass. We’d pick a tulip-shaped or ordinary white wine glass over a narrow flute: the wider bowl leaves room for Prosecco’s floral aromas.
• Opening. Keep a thumb on the cork while you loosen the cage, point the bottle away from people, and turn the bottle, not the cork.
• Drink it young. Prosecco is made for freshness, so in our view there is no reason to cellar a non-vintage bottle.
• Leftovers. An opened bottle keeps one to three days in the fridge with a proper sparkling wine stopper, as our guide to how long wine lasts after opening explains.

Tip: If a recipe or cocktail calls for “Prosecco”, a Brut DOC is the safe default. Pick Extra Dry if the drink has no other sweetness, and avoid Dry or Demi-sec unless you want a dessert drink.