Australian winemakers hit back at European bid to ban them from using prosecco name

Australian wine producers’ investment in prosecco is under threat amid a European Union push to ban them from using the variety name. Photograph: rfranca/Getty Images/iStockphoto

In Victoria’s King Valley tourists travel down Prosecco Road, so called because the wine region has now become known for the variety.

Otto Dal Zotto, an Italian immigrant from the town of Valdobbiadene, the birthplace of the sparkling white wine, was the first person to grow the grape variety commercially in Australia when he planted his first vines on the fertile slopes above the King River in 1999.