Charmat method

And then as Australia's tobacco industry collapsed, Otto and Helena founded Dalzotto Wines in 1987 and in 1999 planted Australia's very first Prosecco vines, I guess Glera in Italian parlance these days, releasing the first commercial vintage in 2004.

And today the King Valley is the undisputed home of Australian Prosecco, that is Charmat Method sparkling wine, because of that one decision.

The Pizzini family followed a nearly identical path, also transitioning from tobacco into wine, and today the Valley's Italian heritage producers are its calling card.

Alongside the Brown Brothers, the Valley's biggest and best-known name, who've championed alternative varieties from the region since the 1950s.

And I don't know too, whether, you know, champagne is very expensive in Australia.

We have a lot of different taxes and Prosecco has really carved a bit of a niche in the market down here and the style of it as well.

I don't want to spend too much more time on this, but just to clarify for listeners, when we're talking about Prosecco from King Valley, we're talking about a Charmat Method sparkling wine made from what the Italians now call the Galera grape variety.

Is it the same variety that's grown there in Australia as well?

Okay.

So if your wine is brilliantly clear and polished like yours, that signals a modern filtered Charmat.

The winemakers have removed any particulate matter just to make it shine.

Right.

Like, it doesn't smell like baked fruit or aged fruit.

It smells like someone literally just sliced a white peach open right in front of me.

And that freshness is the direct result of the Charmat method, which is the defining production technique of prosecco.

So mechanically speaking, how does the Charmat method actually lock in that freshness?

Well, how is this

made then by comparison? Usually, so Charmat, which is usually injection of CO2.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.