Dat er Prosecco en Prozacco in de bubbelmarkt is, hebben we intussen wel dóór. Maar dat er met dat tamelijk goedkope spul ook nog geknoeid wordt, kan alleen maar de moeite waard zijn als vervalsingen een ruime afzet vinden. En dat is kennelijk het geval. Want het Italiaanse Prosecco-consortium heeft erin toegestemd dat er speciale herkenningszegels op de flessen komen, die het kaf van het koren scheiden. Vanaf 1 januari zitten die zegels op de ‘enige echte’ Prosecco-flessen. Er is veel ondermaats wit bruisend spul in de vorm van ‘frizzante’ in de handel, waardoor consumenten worden misleid omdat ze niet weten hoe een echte Prosecco smaakt. En vandaar, zegt Fulvio Brunetta, president van het Consorzio Tutela Prosecco DOC, dat er maatregelen zijn genomen. Uit betrouwbare Amerikaanse bron vernamen we:

“In a move to guarantee that prosecco buyers and consumers are “getting the real thing,” the Prosecco D.O.C. of Italy (Consorzio Tutela) has approved adding seals on prosecco bottle tops as a guarantee that what’s inside the bottle is indeed Italian prosecco.

The seals will be added to prosecco bottles coming from Italy starting January 1, 2012.

Concerns over the legitimacy of whether a prosecco is really a prosecco are directed mostly at the private brand markets created in other countries and the United States.

“People will take a white wine with frizzante and call it prosecco, and no one has any way of knowing what it is until they taste it,” says Fulvio Brunetta, Presidente Consorzio Tutela Prosecco DOC. “The stamps seal over the closure and will serve as a guarantee that prosecco is inside the bottle.” The seals will vary in color and content depending on the bottle size.

Brunetta says the problem begins when an importer in the U.S. and other countries want to sell a wine at a lower price than usual, say around $7 or $8 dollars per bottle. They may buy bulk white sparkling wine from Italy, bottle it, and label it under their own private label.

A wine shop operator in New York, who didn’t want his name to appear in this story, said the representative from the importer-distributor told him the wine wasn’t prosecco, but the company hoped to lure customers with the prosecco name on the removable necker.