Battle over wines: Prosecco vs. Prošek

Prosecco is one of the most popular and best-seller Italian wines. Also, this sparkling wine from north-eastern Italy gives now its name to the grape variety used to make these wines.

Moreover, Prosecco has come to be recognized as a place name thanks to the Prosecco consortia’s efforts to associate the name with the geographic area where Prosecco is grown and vinified. Thus, the area where Prosecco vines grow has been recognized as Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin (“DOCG”).

All these efforts made to promote and market Prosecco's wines internationally led to place these wines on the shelves of wineries and supermarkets of dozens of countries in the world. And Prosecco´s wines are now worldwide recognized, making Italians proud of this product and its origin.

But not all seems to have been good news for Prosecco’s producer lately. 

Last month, Croatia has started procedures for the recognition at EU level of the name ‘Prosek’ as a traditional term for a local white wine. Croatian winemakers agree that the two words sound similar, but they argue that consumers can easily distinguish between the two.

As a result, Italy is in a major dispute now over whether Croatia can sell a premium dessert wine by the name of Prošek in stores across the EU.  

Prošek is made from white grapes grown mainly in the southern region of Croatia, using a traditional process that involves sun-drying them on straw mats before they are pressed. The wine sells at a premium because it uses more grapes per bottle than many other dessert wines.

Actually, it is the second time Croatia has moved to get the trademark recognized. In 2013, Prošek was denied to be recognized as a Protected Designation of Origin (“PDO”) as a result of the objections by the Italians arguing that the name Prošek was too similar to Prosecco. The name was therefore banned across the EU and since then the wine trades under the name Vino Dalmato.

However, Croatia has been battling to overturn the refusal of the recognition of Prošek ever since and it seems that this one just filed is a new attempt to get finally obtain the recognition.

To the fury of Italy, the European Commission has followed up the recent application by Croatia for Prošek to be granted special status under the EU’s Protected Designation of Origin (“PDO”) rules.

Thus, the procedure is moving forward, even though it has yet a long process ahead before any decision is taken.   

Prosecco, to the contrary, has enjoyed this status since 2009, as well as being protected under Italian law dating back to 1969. 

And for that reason and the similarity between the terms Prosecco and Prošek, which might cause confusion in the market about the origin of products, Italians say it is “shameful” that Brussels is considering giving equivalent protection to Prošek.

What the final decision will be it is hard to say. However, what seems likely is that this matter will still produce major headlines on mainstream media from Croatia and Italy before all of this gets to an end.