Italian Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia has done it. Starting August 1, 2009, the Prosecco DOC and the two traditional DOCG are protected as DOP in the EC register. A difficult task, months of work and serious commitment from the minister-involved in furthering the requests from producers backed by the regions-has brought about the hoped-for result. And in a short amount of time. Minister Zaia must be credited with having worked efficiently, quickly and professionally. Now, no one can use the name Prosecco without proper authorization, either in Italy or abroad.
The new law
The new rules are contained in the decree dated July 17, 2009, published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale no. 173, dated July 28th. Basically, it recognizes the Prosecco DOC and DOCG for two traditional sub-areas ("Conegliano Valdobbiadene - Prosecco" and "Colli Asolani-Prosecco" or "Asolo–Prosecco"). "With this decree that has just been signed", Minister Zaia declared,"we can say that the "Progetto Prosecco" has been realized in record time and to the highest standards. It represents a tremendous victory in safeguarding and promoting this wine that symbolizes "Made in Italy" quality, as well as a major accomplishment that is also the result of the collaboration and joint efforts of those along the supply chain, the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions and the National Committee for DOC and IGT safeguarding and promotion".
The new provisions
Given the complexity of the project, in order to aid those operating in the sector and local governments and entities gradually conform to the requirements of the decree, it has been established that:
- for the new Prosecco DOC (which includes eight provinces: Trieste, Gorizia, Udine, Pordenone, Treviso, Belluno, Vicenza, Venice) the measures regulating production shall be applicable with the start of the 2009 harvest;
- because with the recognition of the Prosecco DOC it will no longer be possible to utilize on labels or product presentation the name of the "Prosecco" vine variety;
- the designations DOC Prosecco and DOCG may only be used by those wines which meet the conditions and requirements established in the various guidelines that regulate production from an ampelographic standpoint (Prosecco controlled denomination of origin wine must be obtained from grapes coming from vineyards of the Glera variety), the area of production of the grapes, standards regulating grape-growing, wine-making standards, consumption characteristics, labeling and packaging;
- in a separate decree dated July 21, 2009, the modifications required for regulating production of pre-existing "Alto Livenza", "Colli Trevigiani", "delle Venezie", "Marca Trevigiana", "Veneto", "Venezia Giulia" and "Vigneti delle Dolomiti" IGTs were made in order to replace the type referring to the "Prosecco" variety, with its synonym "Glera".
The priority: Stopping those who copy it
Prosecco wine is an undisputed Italian product of quality, an authentic standard-bearer of "Made in Italy". The goal of the new DOC and DOCGs is to stamp out improper use and forgeries which, unfortunately, are anything but rare on the international scene. Wines of questionable quality are passed off as Prosecco which creates serious damage to honest producers and all those who, for years, have been working towards Italian quality on an international scale. As Minister Zaia noted, "Assuring the guarantee of DOC to basic producers and DOCG to traditional wine-growers, in an even more incisive way, provides guarantees to honest producers and consumers around the world. Behind the name Prosecco and its success is the know-how of Italian wine-growers, an incomparable heritage of knowledge which we will defend against any attempt to imitate it."

Read more in Moletto News September 2009