A Visit to Carpené Malvolti Prosecco

If you are going to explore the world of Prosecco Superiore then you really must know about Carpené Malvolti who have a big part to play in the history of Italian Oenology. To be honest, in the world of Sparkling Wine as a whole, they really have a cemented place in its history going back to Antonio Carpené, scientist and chemist, whose focus was to make Sparkling Wines from the territory in the Prosecco region and the fact that Carpené Malvolti were the first winery in Italy to produce Prosecco as a sparkling wine.

Another important part of wine history was also both dreamed up and founded by Antonio Carpené, the first Oenological School in Italy, which has gained national and international fame since and produced many students that now work within the Prosecco Superiore industry today.

With its 150 anniversary coming up in 2018 (company was founded in 1868) the place was busy with building works during my visit preparing and upgrading the winery ready for the celebrations and welcoming the world eyes upon them during the year ahead. There was sure a buzz of excitement in the air at the offices and though it is busy times at Carpené Malvolti I was pleased to meet with Domenico Scimone, Global Sales and Marketing Director, who was able to answer some questions I had for him.

“Next year is an important one for us, it will be our 150th year anniversary – It is a historic event!” Domenico Scimone

It is a subject that is spoken about a lot recently and that is Prosecco vs Prosecco Superiore and how important it is that people realise the difference between the two – I asked Domenico what his thoughts were with regards to people thinking that all and any Prosecco is just a cheap sparkling wine solution:

“We were the first to produce Prosecco… we started to promote the high quality Prosecco since the beginning and that was before the recent change to highlight DOCG and DOC, it is since Prosecco sparkling wine was produced in 1969. It was so important and now it is even more important to speak about Prosecco Superiore, to talk about territory and not just prosecco. We must accept that Prosecco Superiore is still a baby, it was formed in 2009 as Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin (D.O.C.G.), the highest level of quality for Italian wines, so we need a bit more time to educate people to the difference.”

A UNESCO bid – Will this help the region?

“Yes, UNESCO will be very important, it will be an asset, to give all of us the opportunity to speak about Prosecco Superiore and the territory.“