“Romanzo del Prosecco - Prosecco Blues”: Prosecco’s two hundred year history in music and words

Today, more than ever, wine communication needs to renew its language and get away from terminology that only experts know. It needs to expand, interact with other fields, and above all to narrate the history behind a glass of wine. Territory first and foremost of course, but in its broadest sense, to include the history of the people who make up the social, economic and cultural fabric of the places. The theatrical performance, “Il Romanzo del Prosecco” had exactly this in mind - a combination of words, written by Luciano Ferraro, journalist and deputy director of the daily newspaper, “Corriere della Sera”, and music, composed and performed on the piano by Giordano Giordani. The show premiered at Villa Sandi, and, using new language, it told the history of Prosecco (today the most successful Italian wine in the world), to the people who drink it, not knowing it, as well as to the people who know it, but do not know the history of those who built the foundations on which the Prosecco “phenomenon” was based. The top institutional and leading personalities in the Prosecco world attended the debut on the prestigious stage of Villa Sandi in Crocetta del Montello (Treviso), including Luca Zaia, president of the Veneto Region, the presidents of the three protection Consortiums (Franco Adami, DOCG Conegliano Valdobbiadene, Michele Noal, DOCG Asolo, Giancarlo Guidolin, DOC). Together, they celebrated the history, culture and identity value of this excellent Italian product.
Italian product. Emotions rose as the story unfolded, in the hall of the Palladian-style, early seventeenth century Villa, through Giordani’s music and images. The journey began in 1838, upon Antonio Carpené’s instinct. He was a scientist, and the inventor of the method that was a forerunner of modern autoclaves, which he advertised by holding speeches standing on farm carts. In 1868, the Carpené-Malvolti foundation, which brought Prosecco - at that time called “Champagne Italiano”, as written on the label, and sold with its partner, Malvolti - to the Universal Exhibition in Vienna, in 1873. Then, the tragic and devastating events of the Great War destroyed the territory, and in 1918 the Carpené-Malvolti factory was also destroyed, to be rebuilt 4 years later. In 1922, the rebuilt company showcased its product on eloquent advertising posters, telling the story of the territory, including the wind that blows from the Pre Alps onto the hills of Conegliano, also narrated in great detail. Consequently, Prosecco received great attention and the impetus of important researchers, which continues to today, such as Giovanni Dalmasso. However, at that time, Prosecco stayed within the borders of the Veneto region. Then, another disastrous conflict began, the Second World War, when Ernest Hemingway, who drove ambulances for the Red Cross, discovered the light wine of the Treviso hills. Again, vineyards were ruined, more than 1.200 hectares were destroyed, which prompted Giuliano Bortolomiol, who, in 1946, rode through the hills on his “Guzzino rosso” (red Guzzi motorcycle), to rally the producers, and founded the Confraternita del Prosecco. Furthermore, he produced the first Brut in the area in 1962 (and, in the same year, the Consorzio del Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene was founded by 11 producers, which would then lead to the DOC in 1969, ed.). These were the years of the economic boom, “ schei” (slang for money) in the North-East was the fad, and Vicenza’s GDP was equal to all of Greece’s. These were the years of industries in Veneto, Porto Marghera and class conflicts, as well as the years of “everyone goes to the seaside”, and the beaches of the Veneto area were full of tourists. There were very few bottles of wine, which were “decanted” in restaurants and bought in demijohns to bottle at home. In Jesolo, Cartizze was an immense success among Austrian and German tourists. And, in 1981, the cinema became interested, like in the film, starring Nino Manfredi, “Nudo di Donna” (portrait of a nude woman), who while drinking Prosecco exclaims “Bono. What is it, Bortolomiol?”, as well as episodes in films starring Marcello Mastroianni and Alberto Sordi. It continued to grow until the epochal turning point that started the global success of Prosecco, in all directions. Glera was acknowledged as the synonym of the Prosecco grape variety - which meant the wine that bears this name was protected, as in the case of the dispute with the Croatian Prošek - and Prosecco DOC in July 2009. At the same time, they achieved the Guaranteed Designation of Origin (DOCG) for Conegliano Valdobbiadene and Asolo. One of the architects that changed the history of Prosecco was Luca Zaia - then Minister of Agriculture and now Governor of the Veneto Region for two mandates running- who indicated the stages of the journey, all the way up to planting the first vine shoot in the village of Prosecco in the Trieste area, a geographical name on which the name of the vine was based. He also recounted the turning point, when UNESCO acknowledged the Hills planted with Prosecco vines. It was “a difficult and adventurous game that lasted about ten years, and allowed us to obtain the pillar on which to promote the territory”, President Zaia said.
Two elements drove Luciano Ferraro, deputy director of the daily newspaper, “Corriere della Sera” and author of the guide, “The 100 best wines and winemakers in Italy” (together with the American critic, James Suckling), to compose “The novel of Prosecco”, renamed during writing, “Prosecco Blues”, from the title of a song composed expressly by Giordano Giordani. Ferraro’s journalistic endeavors, for years, explored and promoted the stories of winemakers committed and dedicated to safeguarding a precious legacy, as well as the desire to tell the story of Prosecco in a new way. “I was inspired by a story that the journalist and commentator, Federico Buffa wrote on the history of Brunello” (and a show in the 14th-century Montalcino Fortress, ed.), Luciano Ferraro told WineNews, “I wanted to do the same for Prosecco, writing a text that was educational and fun, bringing together music, history and culture and also facts and things that many people, especially the Venetians, do not know. Starting from Villa Sandi, for instance, where there are still tunnels from the Great War, up to the economic boom, then the 2009 law that changed everything for Prosecco, and in 2019, the UNESCO recognition of the Prosecco Vineyard Hills”. Ferraro and Giordano have known each other for many years and thanks to the sensitivity of the musician - who is not a professional - which has contributed, Ferraro says, “to allowing him to combine music and text in a masterly way, underlining the passages, inserting themes, sounds and counterpoints so that the story proceeds in perfect harmony between words and music”.
The choice of Villa Sandi for the debut was not casual - not only because of the tunnels in which the bottles of the company’s Classic Method rest today - but also its symbolic role, as the president Giancarlo Moretti Polegato emphasized. “Welcoming the première of a show dedicated to Prosecco, symbol of our land and ambassador of Italian excellence in the world is a source of great satisfaction for us. Villa Sandi is not only a winery, it is a place that preserves the soul of a territory, promoting initiatives that unite art, history and wine. Experiences like this confirm our commitment to reinterpret, in a modern key, the ancient role of the Venetian Villas as venues for cultural and artistic encounters. Today, Prosecco is much more than a wine. It is a vehicle of culture and excellence. It is a symbol of our tradition, which is why we must continue to protect and improve it. We are tied to the history of these generous lands, but we look ahead towards broader horizons, and we aim to spread this historical bond throughout the world. I thank Luciano Ferraro for transforming our heritage into an exciting story, enhancing the cultural and identity value of our wine and our territory”. In the future, there will be other opportunities to see the performance. “We hope to show it at “Vinitaly and the City” 2025” (the Vinitaly off-show that will be held in Verona from April 4th to 6th, ed.), Luciano Ferraro told WineNews, “and then we would like to take it outside the Veneto region, where Prosecco is well known as a wine, and where it is well known as a good sparkling wine, low in alcohol and pleasant, but many people do not know its history”.