PROSECCO: ITALY

+MUST TRY+ 
San Simone Perlae Naonis Millesimato Prosecco DOC Brut
Italia: Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Prosecco (now called Glera outside of Veneto; a soft sparkling white)
A non-vintage wine
$19.99
93 pts
Blown away. When I talk about how Prosecco is a better value in bubbly than Champagne, the Perlae Naonis Millesimato is exactly what I'm talking about. If this bottle of wine was produced in the Champagne region of France, it would cost $100 or more. Absolutely freaking delicious: sensuous, invigorating, with fresh peach, ripe pear, baked bread and undertones of flower-petal bitterness that result in a wonderfully balanced sparkling white. Lovely, rich and creamy mouth feel--and exceptional length, staying power. While I'm a big fan of Proseccos in the $10 to $15 range--lots of quality available at that price--the San Simone is a Prosecco I will pay twenty bucks for, no questions asked. Enjoyed this wine for the first time at a Chamber of Commerce event at Nest (a great art-furniture store on Clark Street in Chicago). Michael later gave us a bottle for home--and it's the best damn Prosecco I've ever tasted. Available via the 'net at http://www.wineliquormart.com (in Staten Island, NY). Cin, cin!

+MUST TRY+
Foss Marai Extra Dry
Italia: Veneto
Prosecco (soft sparkling white)
A non-vintage wine
$14.99
90 pts
This is a wonderful bottle of Prosecco. The nose offers the smell of just-baked bread and green apples...inviting and delicious (couldn't wait to get this in my mouth!). Once there, the Foss Marai Extra Dry is soft and creamy, with a perfect weight--it's a wine that actually feels good to drink. The taste profile includes a bit of pear, a hint of the green apples enjoyed on the bouquet, and then some gently bitter flowers before concluding with a long, pleasing mineral finish...a little taste of the Veneto. A tasty, refreshing and interesting dry sparkler that I recommend highly!

+MUST TRY+
Astoria Lounge Prosecco
Italia: Veneto
90% Prosecco; 10% Chardonnay (soft sparkling white)
A non-vintage wine
$11.99
89 pts
This Prosecco offers a lovely, creamy bouquet, with up-front peach followed by a pleasant smokiness. The creaminess on the nose carries right through into the mouth, while the taste profile includes some gentle peach notes, but is dominated by a florality (with nice bitterness on the finish). This wine also possesses a pleasing weight. While I love the Astoria Lounge Prosecco--increasingly I find flowers appealing in terms of taste--it's not for everyone, particularly if you prefer a bit more pronounced fruit in your wine, and don't appreciate floral bitterness. As I let the wine warm a bit (for getting a better handle on the flavors), a stony minerality started to come through. Also tasty! A solid wine, and the price is right. As the back of the bottle reads, "Enjoy the lounge experience." A MUST TRY!

Maschio Prosecco Brut
Italia: Veneto
Prosecco (soft sparkling white)
A non-vintage wine
$10.99
85 pts
There are two positive things I can say about the Maschio Prosecco Brut, and in the spirit of the season, I'll start there. First, it's not terrible. And second, the color is a beautiful, almost luminescent gold. The aroma is closed, difficult to pick up much of anything. The mouth feel is interesting--a sort of creaminess, along with a bouncy little sparkle. The attack offers mostly apple (with a bit of peach fuzz along the edges), but the overall flavor profile here is dominated by the stones and flowers on the back end. While this is often a good thing for my palette, in this case, the various aspects of this wine just don't seem to fit together well. The creamy sensation and the sparkle make an odd combination. The apple and peach don't seem complementary. And the lingering taste on the finish--after the stones and into the flowers--is somewhat unpleasant. On the whole, this wine falls flat. This is the second prosecco in a row that I've reviewed where the individual elements seem terribly disjointed. Is this a common characteristic of bad prosecco? Hmmm. Something I'll keep an eye on. 

Vigna del Sole Prosecco Treviso Extra Dry
Italia: Veneto (Treviso)
Prosecco (soft sparkling white)
A non-vintage wine
$13.50
84 pts
Purchased this Prosecco at Vinic Wines on Chicago Avenue in Evanston last week, an elegant little shop with a thoughtful selection of European wines. Friendly service, too. Not a huge fan of the Vigna del Sole, however: a weak opening, a good mid-palette (pear definitely, maybe some apple, too), and a floral finish. The length is pretty good. But my problem with this Prosecco is not really the individual parts (except for the delayed start upon the first sip); it's that the transitions are so disjointed. When I drink this, I feel like I'm sipping completely different wines from different glasses, rotating sips from one to the other. The first one tastes like nothing, the next one (mid-palatte) is nice and fruity (a hint of acidity from a citrus flavor mixed in?), and the final one is full of flowers, with a little bitterness (perhaps too much bitterness for my palette). It's like watching three one-act plays (one about nothing, and two mildly entertaining ones)--as opposed to a single play in three acts that leaves you both entertained and intrigued. Just not a good effort in its entirety.

Salvatore Principe Prosecco
Italia: Veneto
Prosecco (soft sparkling white)
A non-vintage wine
$10.99
84 pts
Picked up the Salvatore Principe Prosecco for $11.00 at Cost Plus World Market, having no prior knowlege of this producer (from the Prestige Wine Group). In a word, I'd call this Italian sparkler acceptable. The color is an attractive light gold, with the tiniest, quickest little bubbles racing toward the top of the glass (very nice fizz). The bouquet, however, struck me as very odd: an oaky, woody. Chardonnay-like nose. As for flavor profile...I get the same thing: too much wood, at the expense of the floral and fruit (apple?) flavors. Interestingly, when I tried the wine, again, the next day, the floral flavor seemed strengthened, and the wood weakened a bit (a good thing, for my palette). And the fizz remained strong. But in the end, I'm just not a fan of this wine: it looks better than it tastes, and the strange oak flavor, so dominating on my first tastes, just isn't my idea of a prosecco. If you like strong oak in your wine (as well as floral, rather than fruit flavors), you might enjoy it, however--and the price is certainly reasonable enough. But the Riondo, Mionetto, and Zonin proseccos--reviewed below--are oh-so-much better. 

+MUST TRY+ 
Riondo Prosecco Spago Nero NV (by Riondo)Italia: Veneto
Prosecco (soft sparkling white)
A non-vintage wine
$9.00
89+ pts
I don't want you to think I'm a prosecco lush, but at this point, a full 50 percent of the proseccos I've rated over the past year have been MUST TRYs, higher than any other varietal. Clearly, this is a grape I like. What I really enjoy about this wine, the Riondo Prosecco Spago Nero NV, is the wonderful balance it maintains between three flavors: floral, mineral, and fruit (apple and pear, I think). Subtle fruits--not too sweet, as is the point with this varietal--with a pleasing floral component, even to me, for whom the floral taste profile is not a favorite. And at the back end, I get nice but not overpowering minerals...and as crazy as it sounds, maybe even a hint of green vegetables? Gary V. describes the nose as a "band-aid" smell, and he's actually on target. Reminds one of a hospital room smell. Pretty funny. And the length is very nice on the Riondo. I rate this wine just a hair below the Mionetto Il Prosecco, costing about the same, simply because I give the taste profile for Mionetto--less complex, but a bit more fruit-driven--a slight edge (just my preference). That being said, they're both phenominal sparkling whites from Italy, that I enjoy and highly recommend.

+MUST TRY+
Il Prosecco (by Mionetto Wines)
Italia: Veneto
Prosecco - (soft sparkling white)
A non-vintage wine
$9.99
90 pts
This prosecco is I.G.T., a formal designation allowing for a little creative leeway in the way the wine is made, while still remaining ‘typical’ of the region. The Il Prosecco is frizzanti, possessing just a soft little fizz to it. In terms of color, the Il Prosecco appears light in the glass, like a translucent gold. It possesses a gentle peach bouquet and the delicate, light flavor to match (a drier wine). This is a tasty little prosecco at a bargain price (I purchased a chilled bottle at Binny’s Beverage Depot in Chicago for just $9.99). Also has a good, solid finish, with the pleasing flavor remaining in your mouth a good 15 seconds after the wine is gone. The presentation of this wine is unique, as well: the bottle is beautifully shaped and colored, sleek and modern, with a contemporary look to the logo, and it’s capped not with a cork, but with a metal crown top like those found on bottled beer and soda. While I know there are better proseccos on the market for more money—such as the Zonin Prosecco rated 90+ below—this is such a great value, combining affordability, taste, and unique presentation…I call this one a +MUST TRY+. A great wine to have on-hand in the home all summer long.

+RUN AWAY NOW!+
Pizzolato Prosecco (by Settimo Pizzolato)
Italia: Veneto Prosecco - organically grown grapes (sparkling white)
2006
$14.99
75 pts
I.G.T; don't like this organic prosecco at all; bitter, flat, with no finish; not sweet enough, not refreshing; completely unsatisfying; available by the glass at Dunlay's for $10.00. Tried it once, no need to do so, again.

Rustico Prosecco (by Nini Franco)
Italia: Veneto (Valdobbiadene)
Prosecco (sparkling white)
A non-vintage wine
12.99
88 pts
A nice prosecco at this price point: fresh, with a decent finish, too. It's funny, though: there's an instant shot of fruit up front, then a 'break' at the mid-palette with not much going on at all...followed by a long fruit finish (lemon), even stronger than the opening. Not overly sweet (very dry), which is good for me, but Dana prefers a sweeter version. A decent buy at $13.00, but I think there are still less expensive proseccos that taste even better. Vaynerchuck calls it a buy, and Parker gives it 90 pts. I give it 88.

+MUST TRY+ 
Zonin Prosecco Special Cuve'e Brut Spumante (by Casa Vinicola Zonin)
Italia: Veneto (Gambellara)
Prosecco (sparkling white)
A non-vintage wine
$14.99
91 pts
This prosecco is outstanding, in my opinion. The flavor (a hint of lemon, of citrus) is not overpowering; for my tastes, this is the perfect level of sweetness in a prosecco. It's crisp and refreshing, with a good finish. A medium level of fizz. Would like it even more if it was just a few dollars cheaper, but the Rustico Prosecco (rated above), while two dollars less, lacks an evenness, with a hollow mid-palette. This Zonin is steady as she goes, from start to finish--and thus I give it a higher rating. Had a few glasses with Dana's homemade pesto and rotini for dinner tonight, and it was a perfect compliment. Also great with appetizers or by itself.

Presto Prosecco Brut (by Amistani Guarda Venegazzu Winery)
Italia: Veneto (Montebelluna)
A non-vintage wine
$9.99
86 pts
This is one of Whole Foods' Top 10 Summer Wines for 2009: hmmm. At 9.99, that's sure a decent price for Italian bubbly, and the taste is by no means bad--a dry, agreeable, easy to drink prosecco, with just a subtle hint of fruit--but this simple wine is just sort of blah. While one may enjoy sipping a few glasses this summer (as Dana and Leslie and I did on our rooftop deck last night), the Presto doesn't leave you with the desire to run out and buy more. I would describe this as a non-offensive and affordable little wine, but Mionetto's Il Prosecco (rated above), also at 9.99, is much better in terms of taste and finish. And for just $5.00 more one can pick up the Zonin (also rated above, at 91 pts), which has great balance, a more pleasing and complex fruit, and a much stronger finish. I'd compare drinking the Presto to drinking a typical iced tea in a restaurant, for those who like iced tea (not so much, for me): sort of hard to screw it up, and as long as it tastes like iced tea and is cold, it can be refreshing...but it's not the kind of drink one ever craves or gets excited about. That's Presto Prosecco Brut for me.