A pale and light grape indigenous to northern Italy that makes one of the countries most popular sparkling wines. Most Prosecco is made in an extra extra dry, or off dry, style offering fruity aromas of confected pears and peaches. A small percentage are made in a dry Brut style offering bracing green apple and citrus fruit. Since the 2009 vintage the Prosecco zone in the Veneto region was elevated from DOC to DOCG status, joining the ranks with the likes of Barolo, Chianti and Brunello Di Montalcino. At the same time the grape was renamed from Prosecco to Glera. Now anything made outside of the region must be labeled Sparkling Glera, offering extra protection for the zone's 5,000 or so small producers. Most of the regions production (roughly three quarters) is made in a spumante or fully-sparkling style. The rest made frizzante (semi-sparkling), and a tiny amount (less than 3%) is reserved for making still wine, most of which is consumed domestically.
Along with Tuscany, Piedmont is responsible for most of Italy’s greatest wines. Here, Nebbiolo is the king of grapes with the DOCGs of Barolo and Barbaresco supplying a significant amount of the finest examples. Less expensive, but good value Nebbiolos are made within the larger Langhe DOC which Barolo and Barbaresco are both situated in. Barbera and Dolcetto are the region's other important red grapes. Moscato (Muscat) is the most popular white grape, most of which gets used in making Spumante and Frizzante (semi-sparkling) wines, notably those made in and around the town of Asti. Meanwhile, the region's most popular still white wines are made from Cortese and Arneis. Cortese are mostly made in the province of Alessandria and go by the name Gavi, while Arneis is mainly cultivated in Roero, just north west of Alba.
White wine is a wine whose color can be pale-yellow, yellow-green, and yellow-gold colored. The wine is produced from a variety of grape varieties. The flavor and color comes from the juice of the grape and sometimes the skin of the grape as well. Interestingly, not all white wine comes from white grapes. Some select red grapes are used as in Champagne.
