The Consortium for the Protection of Prosecco DOC was founded in 2009, following a small revolution that affected one of the top wines of Italian oenology. Prosecco produced in the Conegliano – Valdobbiadene area obtained the DOCG recognition, reflecting the quality and the historicity of a unique wine, starting from the link with the territory. At that point it has become necessary to protect the denomination of origin of the Prosecco wine produced historically between Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia, protecting it from the competitors and the risk of counterfeiting. Hence the change of the denominaiton of the Prosecco DOC, that no longer refers to the vine, which could be produced all over the world, but to wine.
The new name of the grape, therefore, is Glera, while only the wine produced in the DOC area may bear the name of Prosecco.
The production area consists of nine provinces in Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia: Treviso, Padua, Venice, Vicenza, Belluno, Pordenone, Gorizia, Trieste, Udine, therefore making of it the largest Italian DOC for territorial extension.
The new DOC, therefore, encompasses and replaces the existing IGT (Prosecco Colli Trevigiani, Prosecco Marca Trevigiana, Prosecco del Veneto, Prosecco Alto Livenza, Prosecco delle Venezie) in a single territory. The designation also provides the possibility to specify the area of origin of the grapes for the provinces of Treviso and Trieste.
Forty–eight members to over 6,000 wine companies and 930,000 hectoliters of wine produced only in 2009: with these numbers the new Prosecco DOC Consortium aims to challenge the international market, relying on the notoriety and the quality of a wine that does not fear competitors. The official logo is a kind of sun that with the rotation of 9 glasses stands for the only nine provinces where the Prosecco DOC can be produced.
A significant choice of the producers that joined Consortium is the decision to adopt the State flag, the band compulsory only for the DOCG: a voluntary choice that indicates the intention to further protect the quality of the product, certified by the alphanumeric identification code with which you can track the whole supply chain and combat fakes. The ministerial band is applied to bottles on the market from 1st August 2011.
