News – Storie di prosecco

The whole Glera grape variety, minute by minute

Read time: 5 min.

Football-television metaphor aside, one fact remains: the Glera grape variety, historically widespread in the Veneto region, forms the basis of Prosecco DOC, as its grapes must be contained in a minimum percentage of 85 percent within what is the world’s best-known sparkling wine. The remaining 15 percent can be made up of native varieties such as Verdiso, Bianchetta Trevigiana, Perera and Glera Lunga and international varieties such as Chardonnay and Pinot.

The Glera vine is intrinsically linked to the Veneto region, but in the years its cultivation has spread to Friuli-Venezia Giulia. In fact, one could speak of a return to its roots since it is precisely a town near Trieste, not coincidentally named Prosecco, that is the place of origin of our favorite.

Glera is a type of white grape. Its branches are dark hazelnut in hue and produce clusters of straw-colored grapes, and its use dates back to the time of the Ancient Romans, who considered Pucino wine-the ancestor of our Prosecco-a true elixir of youth.

Robust and vigorous, the Glera grape variety gives Prosecco DOC a very pleasant, as well as very recognizable, acidulous note and elegant fruity aromas. In defining the characteristics of Glera, further differences can be noted according to the area of cultivation: the different climatic and soil conditions in fact give the vines at higher altitudes floral and fruity notes; in the mid-hills, the scents are citrusy and recall green apple; floral and fresh fruitiness instead denote those of the plains.

After the harvest, the production process of Prosecco DOC begins through autoclave fermentation using the Martinotti-Charmat Method.

In fact, the refermentation in autoclave enhances the characteristics of the grapes, especially the floral and fruity scents. The semi-aromatic Glera variety, thanks to a sparkling period (i.e., alcoholic fermentation in a closed environment, where the carbon dioxide that develops from this process, being “locked up,” is naturally assimilated into the wine) 30 days long for Prosecco DOC and 60 days for Prosecco DOC Rosé, thus sees its typical and delicate scents of wisteria, jasmine, pear, green apple and citrus fruits amplified in the glass.

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