Prosecco DOC, the sparkle of MotoGP™ and WorldSBK, is confirmed as Official Provider for the FIM Awards 2020-2021. Joining the event after its participation to the 2016 Berlin edition, Prosecco DOC has been under the spotlight in the FIM Awards, having designed a very special and exclusive label to celebrate this occasion.

The guests had the chance to taste its delicious bubbles during the FIM General Assembly cocktail, during the media event at the Cars Collection of HSH the Prince of Monaco and, finally, during the FIM Awards ceremony and closing party, that took place at the world-famous Jimmy’z nightclub.

The bubbles of the Prosecco DOC Consortium play a main role in every post-race celebration on the podiums and in the paddocks: it has been Official Supplier of WorldSBK since 2013 and of MotoGPTM since 2019 and for the upcoming three years.

Stefano Zanette, President of Prosecco DOC Consortium, commented: “Prosecco DOC is the perfect wine to celebrate every sport emotion. After years in successful partnerships with WorldSBK and MotoGPTM, we are glad to join once again the FIM Awards and honour together the motorcycling world. We are pleased to toast also in this prestigious occasion all the champions of this sport with this special edition label of Prosecco DOC.”

Refined, surprising, authentic, convivial, creative, contemporary, lively, trendy, elegant.

An adjective for each one of the 9 provinces of the DOC Prosecco: those are the ingredients chosen for the series “Prosecco DOC Dreamland, a production by Wine and Travel Italy, to narrate the territory where our beloved bubbles are born.

Let us guide you in a dance to discover a unique Dreamland.

 

Venice is elegant

 

Treviso is contemporary

Padova is convivial

Belluno is surprising

Vicenza is refined

Pordenone is creative

Gorizia is authentic

Trieste is lively

Udine is trendy

 

The word “sustainability” represents the essence of the way of working that is necessary to ensure a future in balance with nature and society. We have learned to recognize its complexity, to identify its components, and to pronounce it with increasing urgency of practical application. Especially in the last thirty years: starting from 1992, in which the UN held its first official Conference on the environment, inviting the creation of “a development model capable of ensuring the satisfaction of the needs of the present generation without compromising the possibility of future generations to create their own “, the word sustainability has become a key point of productive life: for people, for the environment and the territory, for companies and above all for the countries themselves.

Whether on small or large scale, it has ceased to be a simple invitation to become a list of good practices to be applied, perfected and adapted to individual needs. A clear example of the will and tenacity to achieve high levels of sustainability is represented by the Consorzio di Tutela del Prosecco DOC, one of the first entities to address this issue at the denomination level and not at the level of individual companies.

In 2018, the Consorzio Prosecco DOC, five member companies, the University of Padua and specific professional figures launched, thanks to funding from the Veneto Region, the PRO.SECCO DOC project, acronym for the Italian words Programma della Sostenibilità E del Controllo della Competitività della filiera vitivinicola Prosecco DOC (Sustainability And Control Program Competitiveness of the Prosecco DOC wine chain), with the aim of testing the most stringent certification standards of environmental, social and economic sustainability. Strategic management to create the tools and develop the skills necessary to achieve maximum sustainability of the entire Prosecco Denomination, thanks to the progressive transfer of know-how to at least 60% of the denomination’s production chain.

The viticultural and processing companies have started, through precise IT tools, a system for monitoring and collecting data along the business management processes, which allows to calculate carbon and water footprints. Furthermore, among the environmental indicators, that of the biodiversity of water, air and soil will not be lacking. In addition to purely environmental factors, practices towards employees, local communities and suppliers will also be assessed, adopting a path of professional growth for operators to achieve ever greater competitiveness in our sector from an environmental and social point of view, while maintaining its economic value.

All this will lead to the preparation of the “Sustainability Report” of the companies, of the product and, as far as we are concerned – thanks to an innovative system of information flow – of the territory, in order to be able to certify ourselves as a “Sustainable Denomination”.

It is now an inescapable fact that the future of tourism must be sustainable and responsible. Prosecco DOC embraces this trend and shines a spotlight on accommodation facilities within its production area that have chosen the nature-friendly way of tourism. The Prosecco DOC region boasts many examples of this and Adua Villa takes us on a tour of some of these original locations, often off the beaten track, where comfort and environmental protection go hand in hand.

Zero impact and sustainability are the values that guide those who have conceived and built these locations: objectives that are at the very heart of the Prosecco DOC Rosé philosophy.

DOLOMITI VILLAGE
Built with natural materials and entirely eco-friendly, Dolomiti Village is the ideal place for those seeking to enjoy nature in unspoilt surroundings. We are in Comeglians, surrounded by a centuries-old forest and the peaks of the Carnic Alps. Those who opt for a vacation here know that their presence will not disturb the environment. With its solar panels, complete water recycling, zero use of plastic or chemicals, Dolomiti Village is the perfect place for those who love to escape from everyday life and spend time in close contact with nature.

Adua Villa talks to Silvano, the creator of Dolomiti Village. Silvano has realised his dream of building an eco-sustainable village in a fairy-tale setting, where time seems to belong to another dimension. It is the ideal place to toast with Prosecco DOC Rosé.

LAGUNA DI VENEZIA
Prosecco Doc Rosé loves those who respect and protect the rivers and seas. The Venetian lagoon, a world heritage site since 1987, is a fragile ecosystem that can only be visited if the rules are observed to ensure respect for the marine and terrestrial species that populate it.
Rendez vous Fantasia has introduced a new houseboat holiday experience, where you can visit the Lagoon at a speed of no more than 10 km/h.
Come sailing with us between islands and sandbanks and raise a toast
with a Rosé Prosecco DOC on the island of Burano.

GLAMPING CANONICI SAN MARCO
The Canonici San Marco glamping in Mirano was the first in Italy to offer a new and original form of accommodation where you are completely surrounded by nature.
Glamping Canonici is a zero environmental impact structure created by the entrepreneurial spirit of Monica and Emanuela, who offer their guests open-air activities such as Shinrin-yoku and tastings of local products and wines, first and foremost Prosecco DOC.

VILLA DEI VESCOVI
Prosecco Doc Rosé loves art and those who work to preserve the many wonders of Italy.
“Italian Genio” opens the doors of Villa dei Vescovi, a fascinating Renaissance building in the Euganean Hills, just a few minutes from the city of Padua.
Once the summer residence of the bishops of the “City of the Saint” it is now managed and cared for by FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano Trust For Italy).
One of the most famous room in Villa dei Vescovi is the Putto room, where explicit reference is made to the wine-growing tradition of the Euganean Hills, whose volcanic soils give the Prosecco DOC its fruity and citrus scents.

HOTEL OCHE SELVATICHE
A pochi passi da Grado in Provincia di Gorizia, tra la laguna, l’oasi faunistica della Val Cavanata e la foce dell’Isonzo, troviamo il Boutique Hotel Oche Selvatiche.

Adriana, l’anima della struttura, racconta di sostenibilità e rispetto della natura, valori che l’hanno guidata nella realizzazione di questo luogo.

Qui si viene per rilassarsi, per fare bird watching, per i meravigliosi percorsi ciclabili che fiancheggiano la laguna ma soprattutto per brindare con un calice di Prosecco DOC Rosé allo spettacolo del tramonto, che ogni sera regala emozioni impagabili.

A territory that stretches from Vicenza to Trieste like a river that, with its branches, saturates a place full of history, ingenuity, and know-how. The mosaic rich in nuances with shades, varying from intense green to then grey and blue; fragments that are thickened and softened like a painting in the making, depending on the season and the talent of the man: four provinces, those of Friuli Venezia Giulia, and five in Veneto tell the story of the lands of Prosecco DOC in an extraordinary journey that ends with Pianura Padana that gently flows into the Adriatic.

Just as lightness, liveliness, and a balance between aromas and acidity are the predominant characteristics of Prosecco DOC, so too is Prosecco DOC. Prosecco DOC, the same can be said of the main cities on our journey, which we will discover in this article amidst art, culture, and history.

Let’s start from Trieste, the city of the Bora and coffee as a way of life, of the Barcolana, the historic international sailing regatta that gives the Adriatic an infinite number of sails. Its beauty can be found in the words of Svevo, Saba, and Joyce who loved to stop in the city’s cafés and salons because “Trieste, perhaps more than other cities, is literature, it is its culture”, to quote Claudio Magris. It is worth discovering it, starting from its colorful contrasts, its all-Italian elegance, and the first hints of Baltic flavour: gnocchi, risi e bisi, sardoni and granseole proudly stand alongside cevapcici, gulash, jota and presnitz in a language of taste, waiting to be discovered. Just before you continue to the next scene, stop at Miramare Castle and let yourself be bewildered by the infinite beauty of the landscape.

On the road to Gorizia you can see the sites of the war and breathe in the air of the frontier areas even more. A curious fact: in Piazza Transalpina you walk with one foot being in Italy and one in Slovenia, and until 2004 there was a wall to indicate this border. Today it is the ideal starting point for getting to know the city, with its squares, historical residences in the center, and 16th-century buildings: Piazza Cavour, Via Rastello, and Piazza Vittoria are obligatory stops before reaching the Cathedral, Palazzo Attems Petzenstein and the Synagogue. Don’t miss the Castle that overlooks the city and Palazzo Coronini Cronberg. Back on the road, it is nice to stop in Grado to discover the lagoon by bicycle, in Aquileia, an archaeological area so significant that it is considered a Unesco World Heritage Site, just like nearby Palmanova, where it will be fun to stroll through its stellar design and conclude with Cividale del Friuli, a walled city with its unmissable Lombard Temple, before resuming the journey towards Udine.

Here we are in Udine, a human-scale city, a place where you don’t arrive by chance and ‘an hour from everything’, a feature that makes it an excellent base for discovering this part of the Prosecco DOC lands. Udine is the ideal place to sip sparkling wine, eat and enjoy time without a precise destination: it has welcoming porticos and squares, Tiepolo’s masterpieces and a Castle that immediately makes it special. The canals around the city are amusing; they are not very well known and make the center truly special: the most striking are in Via Zanon, Vicolo Molin Nascosto and the Borgo Mercatovecchio passage. The last gem is the view from the first floor of the Trattoria ai Frati.

Pordenone sets out the places where the Prosecco DOC lands are. A city that breathes of Friuli but also of Veneto, it is a fine mix of art and shopping to be alternated with the nature that reigns supreme in the surrounding area. Not far from the town is Spilimbergo and its school of mosaics, Maniago, the birthplace of Italian cutlery art, Sacile with one of the prides of Made in Italy craftsmanship: Fazioli, a leading manufacturer of pianos, producing only a few pieces a year. And then Polceningo with its beautiful Gorgazzo spring, also known as the “portion of the liquid sky” for its turquoise reflections, and the Palù di Livenza site, a UNESCO heritage site among the Neolithic pile-dwelling sites of northern Italy.

With Belluno we officially enter the Veneto region. In an area of undisputed charm, protected by the Dolomites and bathed by the Piave River, the city is intriguing in the variety of its forms: the library and its pleasant arcade, the Basilica of San Martino and its bell tower that recalls the East, then the Interactive Museum of Migration. Sports and nature lovers will find Cortina, wrapped in its timeless elegance, the Dolomites and the Cansiglio Forest, in the Carnic Prealps, the ancient Forest of the Doges of the Republic of Venice, which still amazes with the colors of the beech trees that change from season to season.

We enter the province of Treviso with the splendid artistic stop in Vittorio Veneto where, between September and October, the winner of the City of Vittorio Veneto Violin Competition – International Prosecco DOC prize is announced. This is also the place for the pleasant evenings with the Cinema in cantina, where the visits to the winery to be experienced from a more cultural point of view. Organised in the cellars by the Consortium and the Sole Luna Association, each year they explore different topics through selected films. This year’s theme will be man’s profound bond with the land through emotions, challenges and traditions. A naturalistic pause is a must at the Grotte del Caglieron, with its cavities of artificial and natural origin, waterfalls and a route that unfolds in highly evocative places, and Sarmede, the town of fairytales, but also art and magic.

After all this walking, Treviso is also dedicated to food and slow living. Lose yourself in the streets, enjoy the sights and then stop to savor the cicchetti (snacks) on the Isola della Pescheria where every morning the ancient fish market is held and in the evening it takes on a different vibrancy with specialties from Treviso and, of course, Prosecco DOC by the glass.

Venice continues the carefree philosophy we started within Treviso. The city is worth discovering from its flavours in the bacari that are spread around the city, and the “ombra de vin” that proudly accompanies cicchetti between robust platters of cured meats and cheeses or fun sandwiches to sample here and there. It’s up to you to choose between a fragrant Bellini, made with Prosecco DOC and peach pulp, or a classic Spritz, with a more pronounced flavour, where Prosecco DOC meets Select (a true icon of the Venetian aperitif) with a green olive. The result, following the original recipe, is refined and intense, truly exclusive.

From Venice to Padua you will pass through the area of the Venetian Villas: choose the best ones, dedicating time to the Palladian Villas on the way to Vicenza. They will be a pleasant stop before arriving in Padua to visit Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel, the Civic Museums housing works by Tiepolo and Tintoretto, and the Basilica of St Anthony of Padua. Stop to admire the University and the historical places linked to it: the Botanical Garden, the Specola, the Anatomical Theatre. Between the end of the 1500s and the beginning of the 1600s Padua saw Galileo as one of the cultural protagonists of the scene, with the prestigious chair of mathematics. These were the most beautiful and fruitful years when the scientist created numerous texts, instruments and elaborated revolutionary theories.

Then the many squares that invite, once again, to socialising and the lightness of a glass of Prosecco DOC.

Finally, Vicenza is a polite, discreet place. It is beautiful, with ancient and inconspicuous beauty. Vicenza has Palladio’s signature in every corner and shines even on not-so-sunny days. The Duomo and the Basilica Palladiana are as imposing as they are graceful and have a beautiful touch of colour in the blue of the dome, which blends in with the sky. Then there is the Loggia del Capitanio and Palazzo Chiericati, which show how beautiful civil architecture can be. And then there is the Hugo, light, fragrant and persistent, and the baccalà mantecato to spread on polenta or as you like. This is Vicenza too, politely greedy but certainly full of taste and charm.

 

March 25, 2021: Venice turns 1600, and – of course – looks great for its age. It takes more than a global pandemic to undermine the undying charm of Venice; it takes much more than a global pandemic to extinguish the curiosity of tourists that will crowd it again and promptly ask themselves: “When was Venice born?“.

Spoiler: the answer isn’t unique and lends itself to a series of interpretations and variations. Let’s start from the day: for the Catholic Church, March 25 corresponds to the Annunciation of the Lord, an excellent omen to give birth to a city, which would thus be “blessed” on a divine level. Then the year 421: in those centuries the lagoon area was geographically shaping itself, and rivers such as Po, Adige, Brenta, Piave, Tagliamento, flowing down from the Alps and Prealps, dragged an enormous amount of sand and mud towards the sea. Slowing towards the mouth, the sediments gave life to swamps and islets which – due to the tides and currents – were transformed into long strips of land parallel to the coast: the shores (lidi).

In the middle ground, between the shores and the mainland, laid the lagoon, where an intricate labyrinth of more or less deep canals made the area difficult to access by boats, unless you know the area like the back of your hand. It is precisely for this reason that the Venetian populations, struggling with the continuous invasions by the Huns, the Sarmatians, the Goths, the Alans and the Vandals at the beginning of the 5th century, saw this area as the ideal place to take refuge. The Roman Empire, which until then had ensured a sort of “protection” against invaders, was struggling with its very existence and had many other things to beat, so the Venetians accepted the fact that they had to protect themselves and began to colonize the lagoon.

Just ten years after the famous Sack of Rome by the Visigoths under Alaric I, while the grandiose building of the Empire creaks under the blows of the barbarian invasions, legend has it that come Paduan consuls exiled from Padua migrated to the lagoon. Together with a group of inhabitants of the mainland, terrified by the looming threat of Attila’s Huns, they chose a place called Rivoalto (popularly interpreted as “higher point”, while its original meaning is “deep canal”) to fix a new settlement. Here, on 25 March 421, the first stone of the church of San Giacomo di Rialto or San Giacométo – as the Venetians still call it today to differentiate it from San Giacomo dall’Orio – was laid.

Is the birth of Venice therefore due to the Paduans? In reality it seems like it’s the result of a spite: the conquest of Padua by Venice in 1405 created significant frustrations, and several leading exponents of Paduan society contributed to building this myth as a sort of “moral redemption”. In addition, a very casual fire in 1420 destroyed the archive in which it seemed there were more reliable documents relating to the foundation.

Another disaster, another legend: on the occasion of a vast fire that burned many houses in Rialto, a Greek architect and ship builder – Eutinopo – would have erected San Giacométo as a vow to God to prevent the flames from spreading excessively. The church was later consecrated not by one, but by four bishops: Severiano of Padua, Ambrogio di Altino, Giacomo di Trevigi and Epone d’Opitergio.

A further version tells that Eutinopo’s house – the only one made of masonry unlike the others, made of wood – would have been saved from the fire because the queen of Padua had lived there, sent there by her husband and king Giannusio. The authors of Rialto, Cessi and Alberti, in 1934 don’t mince words: «It’s more likely to delay the construction of San Giacométo until the second half of the twelfth century; its artistic poverty was compensated in history by the light of a legend, which has created a perhaps undeserved halo of fame».

In fact, the first document that mentions it dates back to 1152, against an “official” consecration dated 25 July 1177 depending in the early days on the Bishop of Padua. Its “miraculous” aura, however, is mainly linked to the vast fire that affected Rialto in 1514, and which saw San Giacométo incredibly escape the fury of the flames. Perhaps it is precisely from this posthumous link with Padua and with a fire that the legend took shape in the years to come, leaving the mystery still unsolved.

 

So many doubts, one certainty: regardless of the veracity or otherwise of the narratives surrounding its foundation, the city of Venice is inextricably linked to Prosecco DOC to the point that one evokes the other and vice versa. And it goes without saying, the oenological symbol of the Serenissima could not fail to celebrate his 1600th birthday. To duly celebrate this occasion, the Consorzio di Tutela – which associates the different categories of producers, individual and associated winegrowers, winemakers and sparkling wine producers to ensure the development of the Denomination and compliance with the rules provided for by the Production Regulations – in collaboration with the Municipality of Venice has created a special label with the anniversary logo, for both Prosecco DOC and Prosecco DOC Rosé.

It takes much more than a global pandemic to stop both our desire to uncork an excellent bottle of Prosecco DOC, and to do honor to the former Maritime Republic: in fact, there will be appointments for March 25, albeit in a reduced form. At 11 am, inside the Basilica of San Marco, the patriarch Francesco Moraglia will celebrate the Mass, which will also be broadcast live on television and in streaming to avoid gatherings; at 4 pm the whole Patriarchate of Venice will remember the foundation by ringing the bells; at 6.30 pm a special tv show – that will narrate the history of Venice through images and music with a look to the future – will be broadcasted on Rai2.

 

Everything we’ve always imagined or wanted to ask, about Prosecco DOC in mixology and have never dared to ask: excuse us Woody Allen, but bubbles are serious business.

So just like this the Dive pieces with ninety items of mixology, capable of declining Prosecco DOC into cocktails that taste like a solid future, and you understand an exciting side of using the wine with its thick, exciting perlage.

Whether they are natives like Samuele Ambrosi of Cloakroom Cocktail Lab in Treviso (where local bubbles are the only ones on tap), Max Morandi of Ada C. Secret in Padua or Lucas Kelm at the helm of Il Calandrino, in Sarmeola di Rubano in the province of Padua, or experts in the potential of Prosecco DOC such as Riccardo Tesini of Killer in Milan and Luca Menni directly from Move On in Florence, all the bartenders interviewed agreed on one detail: Prosecco DOC can give a touch of pleasant acidity (“being a fermented wine” as Tesini underlines) capable of making any drink more pleasant, drinkable and appreciable.

Whether it is paired with bitters or with the taki sweetness of pineapple, with the delicate Dloral-relaxing essence of chamomile or with the seductive roundness of raspberry, Prosecco DOC constantly hits the mark, underlining the gentle Padovan macerations invigorated by orange juice, reinterpreting the most classic of aperitif drinks, the Spritz, in a Dloral key with St. Germain, elderDlowers and soda as in Calandrino, or accompanying itself with the stimulating acidity of pomegranate, the sweet cleanliness of honey syrup salted in the shadows of the Baptistery of Florence. An ingenious journey among the different sparkling interpretations of the uniqueness of Prosecco, inside out the territory, supreme Italian Genius able to set the pace even in a mixology version.