Glera
Also known as Prosecco
Veneto / Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
The white grape behind Prosecco: light, high in acidity and gently aromatic, and almost always made into a fresh, fruity sparkling wine.
Sensory profile
Characteristics
Flavor & aroma
At a glance
Production facts
Prevalence
Widely planted
Climate
Moderate climate
Ripening
Late season
Wine styles
Sparkling, Still
Where it's grown
Geography
Shaded areas are the state, province or département(s) containing each region, so they run wider than the appellations themselves.
Italy
Veneto (Conegliano Valdobbiadene)
The steep hillsides between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene make the grape's finest, most aromatic sparkling wines.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia
The wider Prosecco zone reaches into Friuli, and the grape's name comes from a village near Trieste.
Background
Origin & History
For centuries the grape and the wine shared one name, Prosecco, which is tied to the village of Prosecco on the karst above Trieste. In 2009 Italy reorganised the appellation. Prosecco became the name of a protected place of origin, across nine provinces of the Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, with the Conegliano Valdobbiadene and Asolo zones at the top, and the grape was given the old local name Glera, so that the word Prosecco could belong to the origin rather than to a variety planted anywhere.
Glera's delicate aromas of apple, pear and white flowers suit the tank method (Charmat-Martinotti), in which the second fermentation takes place in a pressurised tank rather than in the bottle. The idea goes back to Federico Martinotti in the 1890s, and Eugène Charmat patented a version in 1907. The method keeps costs down and preserves fresh fruit, and it is a large part of why Prosecco became one of the world's best-selling sparkling wines.
Lineage
Family tree
Parentage not recorded — Glera is an old variety of unknown origin.
No crossings involving Glera are documented in the collection yet.