The Great Spumante Taste Test

During our Italian trip, we began most restaurant meals with Prosecco and decided we really liked it so now that we are home, we decided a taste test was in order.

Spumante is an Italian word meaning "sparkling" or "foaming," referring to sparkling wines and while in Italy we drank some very good Prosecco and decided it would be our go-to sparkling wine for the future.  The primary white sparkling wines in Italy are Asti Spumante, Prosecco, and Franciacorta.

Asti is a sparkling white Italian wine that is produced throughout southeastern Piedmont, but is particularly focused around the towns of Asti and Alba.  Made from the Moscato Bianco grape, it is sweet and low in alcohol, and often served with dessert.

Prosecco is an Italian DOC (high rating) or DOCG (highest rating) white wine produced in a large area spanning nine provinces in the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions, and named after the village of Prosecco, in the province of Trieste, Italy. It is made from the Prosecco grape (renamed "Glera" in Italy in 2009), but denomination rules allow up to 15% of the wine to be other permitted varieties.  Prosecco is almost always made in sparkling or semi-sparkling style (spumante and frizzante, respectively), but a still wine (tranquillo) is also permitted.

Franciacorta is a sparkling wine made in Italy's Northern Lombardy region, close to Milan. Considered by many to be Italy's answer to Champagne, Franciacorta wine is produced using the traditional method, or 'metodo classico'. Franciacorta wines are made using Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco and Pinot Nero grapes grown in the Brescia province.

In an early post, we did a Prosecco taste test and ruled out the brand that is carried by the local Food City so for this test I wanted to compare the previous winner, Montesquieu to some others that were available locally.  I had to be in Knoxville so I stopped by the premier wine store in town (Ashes Wines & Spirits) to check out their selection.  And what they had was perfect – a Franciacorta, a Prosecco made by metodo classico, and a Prosecco made by the Charmat–Martinotti method.

Metodo Classico refers to the traditional method of making sparkling wine, also known as the Champagne method or méthode champenoise. It involves a secondary fermentation in the bottle after the initial fermentation, resulting in natural carbon dioxide and a more complex, nuanced sparkling wine.

In the Charmat–Martinotti method the wine is fermented in autoclaves. These are large pressurized temperature-controlled tanks which look very similar to large stainless steel silos. They keep carbon dioxide trapped inside. This winemaking method yields fresh, fruity wines, enhanced further by the mainly aromatic grape varieties used.

The goal of this taste test was to zero in on our go-to spumante for the future and the four wines we tasted were the Montesquieu (method unknown but likely Charmat–Martinotti), DOC.

Valdo Prosecco (Metodo Classico), DOCG.

Santa Margherita Prosecco (Charmat–Martinotti method), DOCG.

and Cortefusia Franciacorta (Metodo Classico) DOCG.

Here they are and I was surprised by the difference in color.  From left to right, they are Franciacorta, Santa Margherita, Valdo, and Montesquieu.

The tasting was performed by Cindy, Pat, Bev, and I and the results are:

Cindy and Pat preferred the Montesquieu and Bev and I preferred the Valdo Prosecco and the Santa Margherita Prosecco as a tie so we will buy which ever is the least expensive of the two as our go-to version.   

But Bev really prefers the Asti Spumante to all of these so we will keep the sweeter, low cost ($16/bottle at Food City), available everywhere Martini and Rossi (DOCG) on hand.

Bev and I retasted our two favorites the next day and the Valdo Prosecco came out slightly ahead of the Santa Margherita Prosecco and since it's a couple of dollars cheaper, we'll buy a case of it ($20/bottle less 15% case discount).

Amalfi Coast coming up next.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

5/21/25 event dates