Glera

Glera is the grape of Prosecco, and it acquired that name for legal reasons. Until 2009 the variety itself was called Prosecco, which meant the wine name could not be protected as a place: anyone anywhere could grow the grape and use the word. Italy renamed the variety Glera, promoted the place names, and tied Prosecco to a defined zone in the Veneto and Friuli.

The grape suits the wine it makes. It is high in acidity, low in aromatic intensity, and gives simple pear, green apple and white flower flavours with almost no phenolic weight. That neutrality is why Prosecco is made by the tank method rather than by a second fermentation in bottle: the tank preserves the fresh primary fruit, and the long lees ageing that gives Champagne its bready complexity would only bury what little the grape has.

Quality tracks the site closely. The steep hills between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, now a DOCG, give a finer and more textured wine than the flat land of the wider DOC, and the Cartizze hill within them is the most expensive vineyard land in the zone.