Are we no longer allowed to describe our Jakov as 'Prošek' of the Prosecco protectionists?
Suddenly our Jakov can no longer be described as Prošek by the Italian Prosecco lobby. We even received a letter about this from the Dutch ministry after a complaint from the Italians.
Prošek is an ancient sweet wine from Dalmatia. However, we are no longer allowed to call our Jakov 'Prošek' by the Italian Prosecco lobby, simply because the name sounds too much like the word Prosecco. And that while Prosecco has not even existed for a hundred years and Prošek has been made for centuries. An overview of the facts.
Prošek versus Prosecco
Let's start by explaining what the two different products are. We'll start with the oldest wine. Prošek is so old that it was already made on the Dalmatian islands in pre-Roman times, more than 2000 years ago. It is a sweet dessert wine that is made using the pasito method. The grapes are picked late, when they are almost raisins. They are then dried on straw mats before being made into wine. So you need seven times more grapes for a bottle of Prošek than for a bottle of regular wine and the sugar content can be over 150 grams per liter.
There are several indigenous grape varieties allowed to make Prošek, such as Pošip, Rukatac, Debit, Bogdanjuša, Trbljan and Plavac Mali. The taste is sweet and aromatic with aromas of raisins and orange and often a filmy mouthfeel.
Prosecco, on the other hand, is a (generally cheap) quickly produced white (lightly) sparkling wine from the Italian wine regions of Veneto and Friuli-Venezia around the town of Prosecco. This sparkling wine is made using the charmat method (tank method) and has only been made since 1930. The grape variety used for this is Glera. The taste of Prosecco wines is often slightly sweet, floral and fruity with aromas of apple, pear and melon.
So much for the differences. You don't have to be a vinologist to understand that these are two completely different products.
Persistent Prosecco lobby
The supplier of our Jakov (which is a Prošek), Vinoplod Šibenik, is focused on export and to avoid problems they have not put the word Prošek on the label. It now says 'Desertno Vino' but it is of course much more than that. It is not on the label, so no one can object to that. But of course our customers need to know what they are buying so we state on our website with the product that it is 'Prošek'.
The Italian Prosecco protectionists are so persistent that they continuously scour the internet in search of companies that they believe infringe on the Prosecco name rights. And that is how they ended up on our website. They filed a complaint and as a result we received a letter from the Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority stating that with "the suggestive wording 'Prosek' we infringe on the Protected Designation of Origin Prosecco". Prosecco received this so-called PDO status in 2009.
Prošek or Vino Dalmato
Now, there has been a battle going on between Italy and Croatia over this matter since 2013 and the EU has still not made a final decision on it. Since Croatia joined the EU in 2013, Prošek was no longer allowed to be sold under its own generic name in the EU, while this was a requirement of the Croatians during their accession.
In 2021, the Croatians again submitted a request for protection of the traditional name Prošek. Of course, the Italians protested against this again. Incidentally, the European Commission also believes that two similar names can exist side by side without causing confusion.
'The Wine Formerly Knows as Prošek'
Why the Italians are so obsessed with this is completely unclear to us. The production of Prošek is tiny and is exclusively intended for enthusiasts who search for it online and therefore should be able to find it. Perhaps it is 'pay back time' and it is because the Italians themselves were given a slap on the wrist in 2005. The winegrowers in the same Italian wine region Friuli-Venezia have not been allowed to use the name 'Tocai' for their white wines since then because the name is too similar to the Hungarian dessert wine 'Tokaj'.
Due to the Italian protests, the wine may be labelled as 'Vino Dalmato' in the EU. But that is a name that means nothing to anyone and therefore does not sell. Anyway, until the bigwigs in Brussels have fought it out with each other, we will temporarily change it on our website, 'Jakov, Vina Dalmato (known in Croatia as Prošek)'. Or: TWiFKAP, 'The Wine Formerly Knows as Prošek'. Would the bubbly Italians agree?
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