Australian prosecco: Brown Brothers upsets Italians

In a recent post on his blog Vino al vino, Franco Ziliani writes about Australian prosecco and Italian products being 'copied' overseas. At 26 comments and counting, a furore has ensued over what the Italians perceive as another episode in their beloved enogastronomic products being imitated around the world.

The more sensitive issue for Italians is not that overseas sources are copying their products, but that Italians themselves are incapable of properly protecting and promoting their culture and quality produce.

My take? Prosecco is a type of grape, so it is permissable that it be used in other wine making regions, Italy or overseas, and that it be given that name. For example, when, in Australia and the rest of the world, you could no longer say "Champagne", we were talking about a regional name and all the tradition and culture that lies behind that wine making technique. That does not mean we can no longer write "chardonnay" on a bottle of sparkling wine, it being the grape variety most used in that style of wine.

In addition, the Italians need to first learn to appreciate their own produce. Prosecco is one of the most bastardised words in wine in Italy, much like spumante, and many Italians drink "prosecco" as an aperitif without knowing what it is, whether that's what's really in the glass and whether it's of quality or not.

As pointed out in many of the comments on Vino al vino, the Italians need to devise a comprehensive system of protecting and promoting their own products. As one reader says, a wine tasting once a year of authentic Italian wine at the embassy in the US (and in any other country for that matter), does not constitute a concerted PR effort in the face of the many imitation Italian products that exist.

The argument is far more complex than I have been able to outline here, but it will be interesting to see if it becomes another example of intellectual property in the wine making world. For my part, I would be interested in trying the Brown Brothers prosecco, if only to taste an expression of this wine from another part of the world. That I would favour it over a good Italian prosecco from Valdobbiadene for all its tradition, culture and quality is another debate.