An impossibly elegant Prosecco

published 16 July 2010

NV Rustico, Prosecco di Valdobbiadene Nino Franco Spumanti, Veneto, Italy (£12.95-£14.99, Sommelier's Choice, London, 020-8689 9643; Clifton Cellars, Bristol, 0117-973 0287; Oeno, Cirencester and Stroud, 01285-658511; The Wine Library, London, 020-7481 0415; Sommelier Wine Company, Guernsey, 01481-721677).

Really posh Prosecco always tastes to me like a wickedly guilty pleasure, but it shouldn't because it is not a dear wine, nor is it necessarily that decadent.

Perhaps it's the evocative images that this delicious, gently sparkling style of wine throws up, which make me feel like touring around the Italian countryside in a decent convertible, stopping off at roadside cafes and eating the freshest garden veg and cheese while admiring the beautiful vistas.

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Prosecco has a celebratory feel about it which Champagne can't quite match. Rustico is an impossibly elegant interpretation of this wine and it looks as chic as it tastes. With a slick ten grammes per litre of residual sugar, it is super-smooth, too.

Grave di Stecca Brut, its grander sibling (£24.00-£26.49, as above, apart from our pals in Guernsey who are cheaper because of the lack of duty) is a serious, mineral-driven and white flower perfumed prosecco with a tight, fine finish.

And even at this lofty level, you are still not troubling real champagne prices! Bellissima.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year ( www.matthewjukes.com ).

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.