Stop Drinking Prosecco Out of a Champagne Flute, You Heathen

Apparently prosecco actually has its own glass

man holding bottle of prosecco with a pool in the background
Have you been drinking prosecco all wrong?
Marc Deriaz/Unsplash

I’ve been in a bit of a bubbly phase recently, ever since a kind Champagne Empress helped me realize that being a goddamn adult means you can drink whatever the hell you want whenever the hell you want to, and you don’t need to wait around for a holiday or celebration to pop a bottle of sparkling wine. Since pivoting to bubbles a few months ago, the majority of my sparkling wine consumption has consisted of prosecco, both because I enjoy it but also because the Italian sparkling wine tends to be less expensive than its famed French counterpart. Unfortunately, it turns out I’ve been making one major mistake while indulging my prosecco habit. Apparently you’re not supposed to drink prosecco out of champagne flutes.

News of this faux pas comes by way of VinePair, where a recent article has taken on the burden of informing the uneducated masses that prosecco actually has its own glass. This makes sense, considering champagne flutes are for champagne, as the title suggests, and prosecco is not champagne — despite a tendency among casual wine drinkers to conflate all sparkling wines into one big category of “wine with bubbles.”

According to VinePair, the ideal prosecco glass should have a rounder base and body than the narrow champagne flutes you might associate with New Year’s Eve and wedding toasts. Such glasses are designed to minimize champagne’s surface area, while the more bodacious figure of a prosecco glass leaves a little more space to enhance the texture and aroma of the Italian sparkling wine. This, according to VinePair, is important when drinking prosecco, as the pros turn to this sparkling wine not just as a less pricey champagne alternative, but because it’s known for being made with highly aromatic grapes.

Moreover, the slightly more full-figured glasses are also better suited for bellinis — the prosecco-based version of a mimosa, often made with peach rather than orange juice. According to VinePair, the prosecco glass leaves plenty of room for both bubbles and peach purée, making it the best receptacle for the fruity brunch beverage.

Now, if you pour yourself a champagne flute of prosecco — like I’m probably going to continue to do because I’ve only just come to this realization and have yet to acquire proper prosecco glasses — and no one is around to see it, does it really matter? Of course not. You could drink prosecco out of a shoe if you wanted to. But even if you, like me, lean toward prosecco more for the generally budget-friendly price tag than the aromatics, there’s still something to be said for sipping it in style.

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