La Marca Prosecco

I featured this Prosecco in a recent fact filled column for the Southeast Valley Ledger, it's such a great bottle of bubbly, I wanted to include on my blog as well!

The two facts I knew about Prosecco prior to doing further research were that they are produced in Italy and I like the taste of them.  I have enjoyed La Marca on a number of occasions; however, I wanted to share a little background on this yummy bubbly so you too can add it to your rotation of refreshing bottles of wine from which to choose. 

As I mentioned, Proseccos are made in Italy and the white grapes used are called Glera, these were known before 2009 as Prosecco grapes.  The name change was to avoid the confusion between the region and the variety of grape when the Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene region was promoted to DOCG (the highest classification for Italian wines) status. 

To produce the wines, the Italians use the Charmat method which basically means the wine goes through a secondary fermentation in stainless steel tanks.  Using this process is less expensive than Champagne where the secondary fermentation happens in the bottle. 

As I prefer my bubblies, Proseccos are made on the dry or extra dry side.  For those of you newer to learning about different types of sparklings, this means that they are not sweet. 

One of my favorite Proseccos is La Marca, named for the region where it is made, La Marca Trevigiana.  Although dry, it has nice fruity flavors and is very light and refreshing.  At $12.99 a bottle at my favorite store Total Wine, you just can’t go wrong. 

Last year I posted a bubbly cocktail using La Marca, the Garden of Eden Cocktail - it's delicious, make sure you add this to your list of drinks to try as well!

I hope you’ll get a bottle of La Marca Prosecco and give it a try at your next brunch or afternoon cocktail party.   This is one you and your guests will enjoy. 

Garden of Eden Cocktail

I wanted to create a cocktail recipe for my friend Elizabeth Dehn over at Beauty Bets.  If you haven't already, you need to check out her site.   I love it - she's got great ideas about style, beauty, wellness and overall happiness.  Not to mention that she has almost 3 million....yes, MILLION (and counting!) followers on Pinterest. 

Knowing how much she loves Prosecco, I decided to work on something that added a few more ingredients to the glass - giving the drink a little something extra special.....just like Elizabeth Dehn.

This cocktail would be delicious at brunch - or on a Sunday afternoon when I chose to drink it during our standing weekend "let's try new cocktails" date with friends.  I'm obviously a huge fan of sparkling wines, I personally can't think of a time when I wouldn't want to enjoy this refreshing cocktail! 

We decided to call it the Garden of Eden (fully recognizing that this isn't a 100% original cocktail name!) but there were two traits of this drink that led us here.  For starters, once we started to feel the effects of it, it made us very happy - never wanting to leave it's warm embrace.  Secondly, we were tempted to have more than what was probably necessary.....and gave into the temptation. Either way - it's a tasty one.  Give it a try and let me know what you think. 

Beauty Bets, cheers to you - I hope you love this!

 

 

 

Garden of Eden

Makes 2 cocktails

 

Bottle of Prosecco (we used Lamarca) 

2 parts Absolut Mandrin

1 part Cointreau

1 part peach puree (Note: you can either make your own, just add water to the puree to thin it or buy some like Finest Call's Peach Puree)

 

Garnish:

Raspberries

Peach slices

Orange slices

 

Chill the champagne glasses in the freezer.  To a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add the Absolut Mandrin, the Cointreau, and the peach puree.  Shake.  Pour strained mixture through shaker into the champagne glasses - fill between 1/3 to 1/2 full, depending how much "kick" you want.  Top with Prosecco.  Garnish by floating a raspberry in the drink and adding the peach and orange slices to the rim of the glass.  Cheers!