New Prosecco laws start to bite

Published: 19 February, 2010

Marks and Spencer has become the first high-profile retailer to be hit by new Prosecco regulations after 14,400 bottles of its Rosecco brand were seized.

Marks and Spencer has become the first high-profile retailer to be hit by new Prosecco regulations after 14,400 bottles of its Rosecco brand were seized.

The Italian government confiscated the bottles destined for M&S before they left Italy.

The brand breaks EU legislation stipulating that the name Prosecco can now be used only to describe a wine from the DOC and DOCG regions, and not for the grape variety.

The law came into force in August last year.

Giancarlo Vettorello, director of the Consorzio Consorzio per la Tutela del Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore, said: "The Consorzio was very satisfied with the job that the ICQRF di Conegliano (Italian agricultural products and repression of fraud) was able to do in stopping this illegal brand from leaving Italy.

"Before the new EU law came into effect, the control of products that are not only damaging to the image of Italian products, but also misleading for the consumer, was very difficult. The seizure of the 'Rosecco' brand, owned by Marks and Spencer, is the first high profile example of the full implications of the new regulations and we hope that this is the beginning of the full irradication of imitation Prosecco products from the UK market."

Vettorello also issued a warning about the Prosecco Capriolo, produced in Germany and available in Tesco.

Producers making Prosecco from outside the DOCG and DOC region will have to use the new grape name Glera (an ancestor of the Prosecco grape) on their labels instead of Prosecco.

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