I’m delighted to announce the arrival of our Shwen Shwen Prosecco which is now available to buy in our online shop.
It comes from Follina, in the province of Treviso. Nestled in the hills of the Valdobbiadene, a single vineyard produces this high quality, hand-made artisan wine, which is made exclusively with Glera grapes.
It’s a lively, crisp, fresh, Prosecco with soft, rich and persistent bubbles. It’s almost clear in colour with greenish highlights, reflecting the youth that guarantees the freshness of the wine. It’s also intensely aromatic on the nose, with a rich scent of granny smith green apple, Pear Williams, Acacia flowers and a fruity freshness on the palate.
Prosecco has quickly become one of the UK’s most popular drinks. According to the International Wine and Spirit Research, the UK is the biggest consumer of Prosecco after Italy.
A survey conducted in 2019 by Prosecco experts Mionetto revealed that we drink an estimated 8.2 million litres of Prosecco per week, with almost a quarter of us opening a bottle at least once a week.
This equates to around 131 million bottles per year, meaning that here in the UK we consume near enough 36% of the world’s Prosecco. Impressive!
But despite its popularity there’s lots that isn’t very well known about this Italian tipple – and here are my favourite five:
1. It has fewer calories than wine. If you’re watching your weight, Prosecco could be a better option for you than a glass of your usual white or red. A glass of red wine has 125 calories while most sparkling wines only have around 90!
2. The best Prosecco is not necessarily found in the town of Prosecco. It is where this now-famous sparkling wine originated from, but to find the best quality Prosecco it’s better to travel a few miles away, closer to Venice. More than half of all Prosecco is made in the Conegliano and Valdobbiadene areas (this is where ours comes from!) as the vineyards here are surrounded by the Alps, which provides the ideal conditions for the grapes to grow.
3. Not all Proseccos are sparkling. Even though we think of Prosecco as a sparkling wine, this isn’t always the case. It can also be made as semi-sparkling and still wine, although it’s unusual to find these varieties outside Italy.
4. It’s a perfect accompaniment to canapes and finger foods, but also goes very well with desserts, pastries and biscuits. In Italy it’s often drunk with charcuterie and cheese, but – so it works beautifully with our fiery sauces!
5. It’s a great cocktail mixer. The Italians use Prosecco in their most famous cocktail, the Bellini. But there are lots of others, including Aperol Spritz and Sgroppino. It also works really well mixed with our Shwen Shwen juices – try our Passionately Bissap juice with Prosecco for our take on a Rossini or Mango Sunshine with Prosecco for a Mango Bellini. Delicious!
