Italian designation (Vino Spumante di Qualità) for quality sparkling wine; see under Spumante.
Common term in Italy (spumare = to foam) for a quality sparkling wine. According to EU regulations, these must have a carbon dioxide pressure of at least 3 bar. Prosecco is often mistakenly used as a synonym for spumante or sparkling wine, but although this DOC wine is mainly produced as a sparkling wine, it is also produced as a still wine. There are many country-specific designations, but only two of them are protected. These are Champagne for products produced exclusively in the Champagne region of France and Cava in Spain.
Other non-proprietary names are Sekt (Germany, Austria) and Crémant (outside Champagne), which are also used in other countries. Sparkling or sparkling wines of lower quality are called Frizzante or...
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Markus J. Eser
Weinakademiker und Herausgeber „Der Weinkalender“