The prosecco trail Down Under

Champagne may be the ultimate celebratory drink but its sophistication is now increasingly being matched by prosecco, a wine that has been getting qualitatively better over the years. The sparkling is often regarded as ‘easy to drink’, wine code for “sweet”, a style that most not-so-discerning drinkers seem to prefer.

However, both in Italy, its home country, and in Australia, where prosecco is also surprisingly produced by a bunch of winemakers with Italian heritage, there are wineries now producing quality stuff with refined bubbles and a drier finish.

Pasta, passata and prosecco

I discover Australian prosecco in a small town of Victoria’s alpine High Country, just a few hours’ drive from Mebourne. Bright is a charming village known for its camping in summer, when hundreds of people from the big cities drive up here to spend weeks in caravans, enjoying the great outdoors that are such a big part of living Down Under.

Patrizia Simone, a chef of Italian origin, is one of Bright’s most famous citizens. She shut her popular restaurant a few years ago and decided to start a cooking school in her large, rambling home, teaching townies and tourists to not just hand cut pasta and stir passata, but also charming things like gathering chestnuts and foraging for mushrooms.

On a crisp May morning, when it is autumn in this countryside and Bright is quiet without its summer crowd, we gather around Simone’s large dining table in the kitchen. In the pot on the fire are pine mushrooms that we have gathered from the edge of the forest, with Simone teaching us how to recognise these, while skipping the poisonous ones. These are now being cooked with garlic and parsley to make a fragrant bruschetta topping. There are roasted chestnuts on the table and, as we sit exchanging stories, the bubbly is uncorked. Naturally, it is Australian prosecco.

Northern Italy, of course, is prosecco’s home country. The sparkling wine is made in the areas of Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, using the Charmat, or Tank, Method of fermentation instead of Methode Champenoise, where wine is fermented in bottles.

Wineries of Oz

Australia’s beautiful King Valley, part of the High Country in the Victorian Alps, is home to prosecco too. It’s harvest time in May, when we embark on our tour, driving from one small town to the other, pausing at family-owned wineries that offer tastings, strawberries and cheese farms.

The climate and the terrain of this gorgeous countryside resemble European climes. That is perhaps what drew hundreds of immigrant families from Italy to this region in the first place, more than a century ago, persuading them to settle here and retain some of their unique heritage even as they integrated with the rest of Australia.

Food and wine, naturally, are a big part of that heritage. The King Valley prosecco trail comprises of five boutique wineries, all owned by families of Italian heritage, who have been experimenting with European cold climate grapes to give us wines that are different from the typical jammy reds other parts of Australia are best known for.

However, despite the affinity with Italy, the winemakers and farmers here remain firmly Australian. Since 2013, a legal battle is on with Italy, wanting to register prosecco as a GI in Australia. (Prosecco was a widely known grape variety till 2009, when Italy changed the name of the grape varietal to glera and claimed prosecco as a European geographical indicator). The winemakers are not amused at this attempt to ban Australian sparkling that has been doing increasingly well both domestically and in export markets. Till now, these attempts to ban prosecco have not succeeded.

Following the fizz

If you are keen to drive along this trail, Brown Brothers in Milawa, at the foothills, would perhaps be a good place to start the journey. This is one of Australia’s most respected prosecco producers and one of the oldest wineries around, though the prosecco production is quite recent and not more than 20 years old. Milawa, a small town located about two-and-a half hours drive away from Melbourne on the road to Sydney, has some gorgeous green pastures and is known for its cheese-making and dairy too. You can taste the prosecco paired with local Milawa cheese for an enhanced experience.

The father of Australian prosecco, however, is often regarded as Otto Dal Zotto, another highly respected wine maker from the neighbourhood. In 2000, inspired by his European heritage, he planted the first prosecco vines in King Valley. The resulting fruity wines were instantly popular in the partying circuits of Melbourne and Sydney, prompting other winemakers to join in.

Vino valleys

The harvest season for the grapes has just got over. But every bend along the mountainous route is beautiful, lined by shades of crimson and yellow, as we drive up to our next stop in the higher reaches of King Valley. Chrismont is a stunning winery, promoting wine tourism almost as much as its wines. Their tasting centre is an elegant space that allows us uninhibited views of the vineyards, as we relax over a glass of their bubbly.

From the stunning beauty of Chrismont, we arrive at Pizzini winery, the fourth on our trail, offering a homely, rustic atmosphere that warms the heart immediately.

There is a small cooking school attached to it, where you can learn the basics of Italian cooking and then eat your artful creations with robust reds made from Italian or French grapes that the winery has been producing since 1994. Prosecco production is more recent here, but the wine is fresh with aromas of the land all around us.

Which is Australia’s best prosecco? Many believe it is Sam Miranda, the third-generation of a prominent winemaking family from Italy. If you like dry wine styles, this is the one for you, The wine has won several awards. Make sure to buy a bottle here and savour it in the months to come.