5 Surprising Differences Between Champagne and Prosecco!

Champagne and Prosecco are both very popular. Both are sparkling wines, but they sell at very different price points. So in this video, I'm explaining the five key differences between Champagne and Prosecco, including the question I'm asked most frequently, which is why is Champagne so expensive? The first key difference between Champagne and Prosecco is the location of the production zones. Champagne must be produced from fruit that's grown in the Champagne region of France. Sparkling wine that's produced from fruit that comes from any other part of France besides Champagne must be called Cremant and may not be called Champagne. With one interesting exception I'll get to in a little bit, Prosecco is produced from nine provinces in northeast Italy, including the Veneto and other areas near Venice. The second key difference between Champagne and Prosecco is the production method. Both Champagne and Prosecco start out with the production of a that doesn't have any bubbles at all. For Champagne, the secondary fermentation that produces the effervescence takes place in the actual bottle that you purchase from the store and that you drink when you get it home. With Prosecco, however, the secondary fermentation takes place in a large tank. After this secondary fermentation, the Prosecco is bottled. The method to produce Prosecco is sometimes called the tank method or the charmat method. Another difference in the production method between Champagne and Prosecco is that Prosecco does not age for very long. It's generally bottled and released a few months after the secondary fermentation. In contrast, Champagne ages for a much longer time period and it's not at all uncommon for vintage Champagne to age for a number of years. The third key difference between Champagne and Prosecco is the grapes that are used. For Champagne, producers may use Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, or Meunier, either individually or in any combination. If a producer makes a Champagne exclusively from Chardonnay, it's called a Blanc de Blanc. Pinot Noir and Meunier are black grapes and so if the producer makes a Champagne from either of those grapes, either individually or in combination, it could be referred to as a Blanc de Noir. These Champagnes can be white even though they're produced from black grapes because the producer will withhold skin contact. There is a Rosé Champagne. Some of those could have a little bit of skin contact but in other instances the producer will add some still Pinot Noir to the Champagne. The grape used to produce Prosecco is called Glara. Interestingly, however, this grape used to be called Prosecco. What happened is the people in the region that's now known as Prosecco wanted to get the same protection for their name that Champagne had so they applied for protection for the name Prosecco but it was rejected because that was the name of the grape. So being very clever, what they did is they changed the name of the grape from Prosecco to Glara. Then they went back and resubmitted their application and said everything's fine now because the grape is actually Glara and not Prosecco and this tactic actually worked and ever since then they've been able to get protection for the name Prosecco. There is one area in Australia, however, where producers had made Prosecco and been selling Prosecco since before this name change and these producers were not at all happy about the possibility of having to use a different name and so there's still a legal battle going on between these producers in Australia and Prosecco. Another key difference between Champagne and Prosecco is the obvious one, the cost. So why is Champagne so much more expensive than Prosecco? Well there's a number of reasons. First, it's much more expensive to produce Champagne than Prosecco. This is so at least in part because there's strict yield requirements in Champagne. Producers are only able to produce a limited amount of fruit. In contrast, the yield requirements are much much higher in Prosecco and producers can make many more grapes and much more fruit on the land that they have. Also, the production zone in Champagne is much smaller and has never been increased. In contrast, the production zone in Prosecco is massive and not only that but every time the demand for Prosecco gets big enough that it outstrips the supply, they keep expanding the production zone and making it bigger and bigger and bigger and so now you have a situation where many of the grapes that are grown to produce Prosecco come from an area where that fruit was previously not allowed to go into Prosecco. Champagne is also much more expensive than Prosecco due to the production method. For example, in Champagne, it's a requirement for all producers to harvest their grapes by hand which requires extensive manual labor because all the grapes have to be harvested by hand within a short period of time. In contrast, in Prosecco, the grapes can all be machine harvested which is far less expensive and more efficient. As mentioned earlier, the secondary fermentation for Champagne also takes place in individual bottles rather than in a large tank and so this is much more labor intensive than the tank method that's used for Prosecco. Champagne also has very strict and much longer aging requirements than Prosecco. While there are a few Proseccos that have some extended aging, the vast majority of them are bottled and released shortly after the secondary fermentation and generally within a few months after the harvest and so most of the Prosecco on the shelves now is probably from 2021. In contrast, most of the Champagne that's being sold has undergone extensive aging. In the case of vintage Champagne, for example, the Dom Pérignon that's the current release is the 2012 vintage. So for Dom Pérignon, they just now released that 2012 vintage and it had been sitting in their cellar and aging for year after year after year. In contrast, Prosecco can keep bottling and selling and bottling and selling year after year after year and so they don't have all their money tied up in inventory where a Champagne producer, for example, could have three, four, five, six or even more years worth of inventory just kind of tied up waiting for the aging process to finish so that they can sell the next vintage and recoup some of their investment. Another key difference between Champagne and Prosecco is the taste. With Prosecco, given the shorter aging, there's an emphasis on freshness and on a fruit-forward profile. Sometimes Prosecco can also have a little bit more sweetness than Champagne. In contrast, due to its extended aging on the lease, Champagne can experience some autolytic descriptors such as toasted bread, brioche and the like. While Champagne does have some fruit descriptors as well, they're typically a little bit more subtle and not as pronounced in fruit-forward. These autolytic descriptors for Champagne become intensified the longer that the Champagne ages and so you can really tell a difference if you compare head-to-head a vintage Champagne such as a 2012 Dom Piregnon with a new release Prosecco. The Prosecco will definitely be much more fruity and sweet where the Dom Piregnon will definitely have more of the biscuit and brioche characteristics. If you like the idea of drinking sparkling wine that's made in the same method as Champagne but you just don't have the budget for Champagne, be sure to check out my video on budget alternatives to Champagne where I discuss Cava, Cremant and other sparkling wines made in the Champagne method.