2023 Chalmers Dott. Prosecco

Prosecco needs little introduction. It hails from the Veneto in the foothills between the Dolomite mountains and the Adriatic Sea near Venice in North Eastern Italy. This attractive, appealing sparkling wine has historically been made in various sparkling wines methods, often made ‘Contadino’ style (col fondo), charmat, carbonated as well as still wine. Its popularity in recent years is for good reason, mostly due to it’s delicious and approachable nature.

Chalmers imported Prosecco through the Dr. Rod connection with VCR together with our first vine imports selected in 1998, decades before the variety and wine style had seen the international popularity it has today. It’s midlate ripening behaviour is a benefit for our warmer climate viticulture. Prosecco’s flavour ripeness at lower sugar levels as well as our sandy soils and limestone of the Murray Darling region vineyard promotes pristine and pure fruit flavours also favourable for crafting fresh, sparkling wine.

Our is Prosecco is typically harvested in mid-late February, over two seperate harvests approximately 10 days apart to allow subtle complexities to the finished wine. The two individual harvests are pressed into stainless steel for cool, natural ferments on solids. After some maturation on fine lees in stainless steel it is bottled early in the year of production for ultimate freshness in bottle. – Chalmers