Glera Wine

The grape behind Prosecco — light, frothy and fruity with green apple, pear and a floral lift, made sparkling in the tank method for an easy, gently off-dry fizz. Bright and uncomplicated; drink it young and cold.

The grape behind Prosecco

Glera is the grape behind Prosecco, the world’s most-loved everyday fizz. It used to be called ‘Prosecco’ itself, until Italy renamed the grape ‘Glera’ in 2009 so that ‘Prosecco’ could be protected as a place name — a neat bit of branding that helped make it a global phenomenon.

On its own, Glera is a light, low-key white: fresh, floral and fruity, with modest acidity and gentle aromatics. It’s not built for power or aging — it’s built to be charming, frothy and easy.

Aromas & flavours: green apple, ripe pear, white peach, honeysuckle, white blossom and a touch of citrus.

How Prosecco is different from Champagne

The big thing to understand about Glera is the way it’s made sparkling — because it’s the opposite of Champagne.

Tank method (Charmat): Prosecco gets its bubbles from a second fermentation in a large sealed steel tank, then is bottled under pressure. It’s quicker and cheaper than the bottle-fermenting used for Champagne.

Why it tastes the way it does: the tank method keeps the wine fresh, fruity and floral, with no bready, biscuity, yeasty character. That’s deliberate — Prosecco is meant to taste of fruit and flowers, not toast.

So if you wish your Prosecco tasted ‘more like Champagne’, the truth is it never will — and isn’t trying to.

Sweetness and styles to know

Most Prosecco carries a little sweetness, and the labelling is genuinely useful — confusingly, the drier the wine, the ‘less dry-sounding’ the word:

• Brut — the driest common style • Extra Dry — slightly sweeter than Brut (despite the name!) • Dry — sweeter still

Spumante means fully sparkling; Frizzante is gently fizzy (a softer, semi-sparkling style); Tranquillo is rare still wine.

Col Fondo is a niche, cloudy, bottle-fermented version that’s drier and yeastier — Prosecco for natural-wine fans.

Where it shines

Prosecco comes from northeast Italy, and the geography is a real quality ladder.

• Prosecco DOC — the large, mostly flat zone across the Veneto and Friuli; reliable, fruity, inexpensive everyday fizz • Prosecco Superiore DOCG (Conegliano-Valdobbiadene) — the steep, hand-harvested hills that make the finest, most complex Prosecco • Cartizze — a tiny, prized hilltop within that zone, the grand cru of Prosecco • Rive — single-hillside bottlings showing distinct village character

Look for ‘Superiore’ or ‘Valdobbiadene’ on the label for a clear step up.

Good to know

Serve cold and drink young. Around 6–8°C, and ideally within a year or two of release — Prosecco is about freshness, not aging. There’s no reward for cellaring it.

Use a wine glass, not a flute. A standard white-wine glass captures the fruity, floral aromas far better than a narrow flute, which mostly shows off the bubbles.

Food and cocktails: lovely as an aperitif, with light antipasti, or fried snacks. It’s also the proper base for a Bellini (with peach) and an Aperol Spritz — Champagne would be wasted there.

The pink question: Prosecco Rosé is a recent (2020) addition, made by blending in a little Pinot Noir — fun and fruity, if you spot it.