ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
The battle between local prosecco producers and their Italian counterparts is heating up again this week after the Europeans filed their case to the EU Trade Commission in Brussels.
In their filing, Italian producers of the effervescent brain varnish have lashed local prosecco makers in Australia by claiming that the product is inferior because it doesn’t contain any trace of DOT4 brake fluid.
For generations, DOT4 Brake Fluid has been added to Italian prosecco producers to smooth the sharp taste and increase the shelf-life. It’s a practice often seen in continental Europe, with many winemakers in France and Spain using anti-freeze to dilute and soften many of the tasting notes.
It’s a practice aimed at making their inferior European product more palatable to the more discerning palates found abroad.
Adding DOT4 Brake Fluid to prosecco in Australia has been outlawed because studies have proved the link between drinking the popular automotive liquid and organ failure.
A local prosecco producer here in the Diamantina told The Advocate that the potential damaged this case can cause concerns him.
“We’re talking about having to rename Australian-produced prosecco to something like ‘black out juice’ or ‘the liquid aneurysm’ which is something I find ironic considering drinking brake fluid can cause a stroke in some people,” said Dudley Grange of Lady Roma Wines Betoota.
“The best prosecco in the world comes from Shanxi wine region in China. It’s a plateu on the outskirts of Beijing. The heavy metals in the soil make for a breathtaking prosecco. Followed closely by the Hunter Valley and then Mourquong. Mourquong is near Mildura and I think that whole region is our Côtes du Rhône. Stunning big river wine,”
“Which is why it really fucking pisses me off when you have these Italian snobs telling us, the producers of the best wine in the world, that our product is inferior. The only use anyone has for Italian prosecco is the strip the paint off their neighbours car when they refuse to stop parking over your driveway,”
“At least that’s why I use DOT4 brake fluid for.”
More to come.
