Italy steps up fight against Prosek after Croatia bid filed

Rome: Italy on Wednesday stepped up its fight to stop the European Union recognising Croatian Prosek wine after the application for the alleged inferior clone to Italy’s famed prosecco was published in the EU’s Official Gazette.

Farm Minister Stefano Patuanelli told the Senate that a task force had already been set up to combat the registration of Prosek was a recognised denomination.

“It seems indubitable to me that the term Prosek would evoke in the average European consumer Italian Prosecco due to its phonetic resemblance,” he said.

Patunaelli said he did not think “the conditions exist” for the EU to put Prosek on a par with prosecco.

Italy has two months from Wednesday’s publication of the application to file its objections to the Croatian wine becoming one of the EU’s protected products. Patuanelli stressed that “no definitive decision has yet been taken on the registration”.

But farm group Coldiretti said that “the EU’s green light to the publication of the application for Croatian Prosek ruins the historic record for world prosecco exports, which rose 35% in the first six months of 2021.”

The group said the publication also “blatantly contradicts the recent sentence of the European Court of Justice that declared illegitimate all the fraudulent Italian sounding names which deceptively evoke products recognised and protected by the European Union like the star of Italian bubbly which this year should reach a record of 700 million bottles produced, the biggest wine brand in the world”.