How Italy’s Favorite Bubbly Beguiled Us

What accounts for this surge in popularity? “Prosecco is an affordable, versatile, appealing, good-quality sparkling wine,” said Danny Brager, SVP of Nielsen’s Beverage Alcohol team. Friends of mine have their own reasons. Meg likes the Italian sparkler because “it’s fruity and fun,” while Martha appreciates its low alcohol level (11%-12%). Julianne was actually advised by a nutritionist to drink Prosecco, perhaps because it has fewer calories than red or white wine. (Since Champagne is equally low in calories, I wondered why her nutritionist didn’t recommend it as well. “Maybe she’s trying to save her clients money?” Julianne proposed.)

Enore Ceola, CEO and managing director of Mionetto USA, based in White Plains, N.Y., believes Prosecco is attractive to fans of Sauvignon Blanc and rosé, two other hugely popular types of wine. “The flavor profile is very similar. They are fruity, low in alcohol,” he said, echoing my friends’ preferences. Mr. Ceola knows the market better than most people; he’s been selling Prosecco in the U.S. since 1997. Back then, he recalled, it was marketed as “a cheap alternative to Champagne”—a comparison that excited little interest among wine drinkers.

Mr. Ceola focused instead on Prosecco’s unique character, positioning Mionetto Prosecco as a fresh, fruity wine to be enjoyed in its youth. He did such a good job that Mionetto is now the second-biggest Prosecco brand in the U.S. (after Gallo’s La Marca). Sales of its mid-tier Prestige Brut line in the U.S. reached 670,000 cases last year and are expected to grow to 800,000 this year. Sales of Mionetto’s Proseccos overall have grown around 25% year over year since 2010.

Mr. Ceola attributes some of this sales growth to male drinkers who’ve adopted Prosecco. He noted that though most (70%) of Prosecco drinkers are women, men are increasingly coming around to this sparkling wine. “Maybe it has something to do with craft beer,” he said. Who would have thought a predilection for IPA might prime the male palate for Prosecco?

Though the fans I talked to could tell me what they like about Prosecco, they knew very little about where or how it’s made. Only two Prosecco-loving friends knew it came from somewhere near Venice, and no one could name its grape.

The Prosecco-producing regions are actually quite vast, stretching across the Veneto region of northern Italy and into the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. In the Treviso province of Veneto, the area between the towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, regarded as home to the best Prosecco vineyards, was elevated to DOCG (Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin) status in 2009, as was a smaller area around the town of Asolo.

Up to that point, the grape that was used to make Prosecco was also called Prosecco. But with Conegliano-Valdobbiadene’s and Asolo’s boost in status, “Prosecco” came to be recognized as part of their regional monikers: Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG Prosecco Superiore and Asolo DOCG Prosecco Superiore. The Italian government decided that Prosecco could not be both a place name and a grape name, so the grape is now called Glera—which sounds to me more like a cheaply made car. (“Did that Glera break down again?”) A few other grapes, too, sometimes go into Prosecco, including Verdiso, Bianchetta, Perera and even Chardonnay, but all Proseccos must be composed of at least 85% Glera.

Some Proseccos, particularly those with the DOCG designation, are made in the same manner as Champagne, by way of the méthode traditionnelle. This painstaking process involves a first fermentation in the barrel and a second one in the bottle, which gives it a richer, more complex character. Most Proseccos in the larger DOC (Denomination of Controlled Origin) category are made by the less expensive Charmat method, wherein secondary fermentation occurs in a pressurized stainless steel tank. Wines produced in the latter manner are fresh and fruity, and best consumed young. What’s known stateside as the mid-tier category includes both DOCG and DOC bottles. Prosecco is further categorized according to how dry it is, from Dry to Extra Dry to Brut, the driest of all.

I purchased 14 Proseccos for my tasting, from various regions and of varying degrees of dryness. The one commonality: price. They were all “mid-tier,” though I stretched the dollar definition a bit, to a range of $11-$16. As one might predict, enlisting people to taste Proseccos with me proved no challenge at all.

Some of the wines we tasted were soft and fruity, even a bit sweet. These weren’t my favorites, but I did find some of them approachable, even attractive, notably the Moletto Prosecco Treviso ($12) and the Capriccio Prosecco ($12). I preferred the drier Zardetto Z Prosecco Treviso Brut DOC ($13), a crisp, light-bodied wine made with a touch of Chardonnay. But my friend Meg found that one too dry and a bit too light. “It’s almost like a seltzer,” she said.

The group’s unanimous favorites were drier, most notably the Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Superiore ($15), whose crisp, clean character reminded Jim of Champagne. It was decidedly the most complex wine of the group, though the bright, minerally Luca Grucci Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore ($14) was a close second and nearly as good. “It’s very dry but it also has the right amount of fizz,” Jim declared. We also liked the lithe Sorelle Bronca Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Extra Dry ($16), which was elegant but so very light-bodied that all agreed it would work best as an aperitif.

Julianne was a bigger fan of the fruitier wines, such as the soft and fruity Mionetto Prosecco Treviso Brut DOC ($15), which we all agreed was quite pleasant and easy to drink. It was also the wine everyone knew best. “I just had this in a restaurant last week,” said Julianne. The La Marca Prosecco ($14) was equally fruity, in a soft, crowd-pleasing style, but not quite as good as the Mionetto. Juliette and Ruth did like the color of the La Marca label, which they dubbed “Tiffany blue.” But a favorable shade of blue didn’t always predict the quality of what was in the bottle, as another light-blue-labeled bottle, the Caposaldo Prosecco ($11), soon proved. Julianne compared it to a fizzy aspirin, and I found it bitter and thin.

None of the Proseccos we tasted would be mistaken for Champagne (except maybe one); their producers don’t pretend they could be. These wines were, however, fruity and fun—not to mention low in calories.

OENOFILE // Five Top-Notch Mid-Tier Proseccos

Photo: F. Martin Ramin/The Wall Street Journal

1. Sorelle Bronca Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Extra Dry, $16

Those who like a bit of sweetness in their bubbly will be pleased by this soft, light-bodied wine from a pair of winemaking sisters. It’s marked by pleasant notes of melon and peach.

2. Nino Franco Rustico Prosecco di Conegliano Valdobbiadene Superiore DOCG, $15

Long regarded as a top name in quality Prosecco, Nino Franco turns out a dry, fresh wine from the Glera grape that some tasters thought tasted like Champagne.

3. Luca Grucci Prosecco di Conegliano Valdobbiadene Superiore DOCG, $14

A crisp, dry wine marked by citrusy aromas, the Luca Grucci is a well-made wine and an excellent value, if perhaps possessed of the plainest label in the Prosecco producing world.

4. Mionetto Prosecco Brut Treviso DOC, $15

Mionetto is the second-most-popular Prosecco brand in the U.S. This Prosecco, from Mionetto’s growing mid-tier Prestige Brut line, is a reliably pleasant, soft and fruity, low-alcohol wine that’s easy to like.

5. Zardetto Z Prosecco Treviso Brut DOC, $13

A touch of Chardonnay is combined with the Glera grape to produce this light and vibrant wine, from a longtime producer said to have been the first to import Prosecco to the U.S. (in 1984).

Email Lettie at wine@wsj.com.