It has been a busy year and we worked very hard obtaining the high quality you appreciate and expect drinking our DOC and DOCG prosecco range. 

During 2011, the prestigious West London Wine School hosted tasting classes introducing the Riccardo’s range to their many followers; Melograno Alimentari - a fabulous italian delicatessen in Clarendon Road, Kensigthon – and Grays&Feather - the superb sparkling wine specialist based in Westminster, London - are now offering our range to their customers.

Thank you……and a very Happy New Year!

The investment required by the Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia regions (North East Italy) to reach this expansion has been estimated to be around €1.8bn (£1.5bn).

‘Growth will be possible because the consumer will shun general sparkling wines for higher quality products.’ said the manager director of Bisol.

Growth has been fuelled by the US, which has quadrupled its consumption of Prosecco in the past decade to 2.3m bottles in 2010. Production is set to double within the next two years claims Bisol. ‘There are enough vines in the ground for 400m bottles and they will come on stream in 2013,’ he added.

The future looks bright for top quality Prosecco!

Makes: 4 cups

Ingredients 

·             ½ cup caster (superfine) sugar

·             ½ cup water

·             ¼ cup rosewater

·             ½ cup gin

·             2 cups Prosecco

·             2 cups soda water

·             Ice cubes, to serve

·             Pink rose petals*, to serve

Preparation

Place the sugar, water and rosewater in a saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved.

Bring to the boil and cook for 5 minutes or until thickened slightly. Allow to cool completely. Place the rosewater syrup, gin, prosecco, and soda water in a 6 cup-capacity jug with the ice and stir to combine. Top with the rose petals to serve.

* Be sure to ask your florist or greengrocer rose petals that are free from pesticides and suitable for using with food.

·      110g unsalted butter

·      softened ½ cup sugar

·      1 tsp lemon zest

·      ½ tsp salt

·      2 large egg yolks

·      ½ cup polenta

·      1¼ cups plain all-purpose flour

·      ½ cup golden raisins

Zabaglione

·      6 large egg yolks

·      ¼ cup sugar

·      ½ cup Italian Prosecco

Preparation

For the Cookies

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until fluffy.
Beat in lemon zest and salt, then egg yolks.
Beat in polenta, then flour.
Fold in raisins.
Knead dough just to combine; transfer to sheet of plastic wrap.
Using plastic, shape dough into a log 3cm in diameter, cut in half and wrap in plastic.
Chill until firm, 3 hours or up to 1 day.

Slice dough log into 0.5cm-thick rounds.
Arrange rounds on prepared baking sheet, spacing 2cm apart and reshaping into rounds if uneven. (The cookies do not spread too much so there is no need to space them too far apart.)
Bake cookies for about 15 minutes or until they have become golden in colour.
Cool on tray for 2 minutes, then lift cookies from tray using a spatula and transfer to a wire rack.

NOTE: The dough can be made up to 48 hours ahead and stored in the fridge.

For the Zabaglione

Whisk egg yolks and sugar in large metal bowl and gradually whisk in Prosecco.
Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bowl to touch water) and whisk until mixture is thick and foamy, about 4 minutes.
Divide zabaglione among 6 cocktail glasses.


Serve immediately with Lemon Polenta Cookies.

Ingredients

• 1 watermelon
• 1 lime
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
• Prosecco 

Directions

First thing to do is to scoop out all of the watermelon into a large bowl.  Then, give it a blender treatment. This way you can puree the fruit and strain it to get the sweet, juicy flavor. You’ll probably end up with around nine cups of juice and one cup of pulp. Add the juice of one lime to the pitcher, to make it a little bit more refreshing.

Next, make a simple syrup by heating 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water on the stove. Let it boil and simmer for about 5 minutes. Then, let it cool and mix it with 4 cups of the watermelon juice.

At this point grab a flute and mix the watermelon syrup with some Prosecco.

Enjoy!

Ingredients

For the macaron shells
110g icing sugar
60g almonds, very finely ground
60g egg whites, (about 2 eggs) aged for either 5 days in the fridge, then for 24 hours at room temperature or a little over 24 hours on the countertop
40g granulated sugar
Pinch of organic lavender buds
Purple food coloring

For the filling

200 ml grapefruit juice – I used Ruby Red grapefruits
50ml prosecco
Zest of 1 grapefruit, grated
100g unsalted butter, cut into pieces 
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
200g fine granulated sugar

Method

For the macaron shells:

1. Prepare your baking tray and baking sheets with a stencil of circles. Draw circles on some baking paper using a (mathematical) compass about 2 cm in diameter. Then place some white parchment paper on the baking tray and flip the baking paper back around. Or use this macaron template.
2. In a large mixing bowl mix the egg whites with an electric hand beater (alternatively you can use a stand mixer with the whisk attachment) until it is thick and frothy. Gradually add the granulated sugar, whisking all the while, until the mixture turns into a thick glossy meringue. The consistency of the macaron batter should be similar to hair mousse or shaving foam. Make sure the meringue is not over-beaten or else it will be too dry.
3. In a food processor pulse together icing sugar, almonds and lavender buds until everything is finely ground and powdery. Sift the mixture 2 or 3 times to make sure there are no lumps.
4. Place the dry ingredients into a bowl. Add the meringue in three portions, giving it a quick fold using the macronnage technique described in my macaron tips section. Fold the mixture a few times to break the air. Add some of the purple food coloring till you get the shade of purple you like best. Continue folding until you get a smooth and supple mixture, thick in consistency so that when you lift the spatula it flows back in thick ribbons. Test a small amount on a plate – should the tops fall back and flatten by themselves then it is ready, if not give it a few more folds.
5. Fill a piping bag with a plain tip with the batter and pipe small rounds (2 cm in diameter) on your prepared baking paper. Leave the macarons to rest and dry for about 15 to 30 minutes.
6. In the meantime preheat the the oven to 150 degrees C. When the macarons are ready bake the shells for 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Use a flat offset spatula to gently remove the shells from the baking paper and allow to cool further on a rack.

For the filling:

1. Put the grapefruit zest and juice, prosecco, sugar and butter into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, making sure that the bottom of the basin doesn’t touch the water. Stir with a whisk occasionally until the butter has melted.
2. Mix the eggs and egg yolk lightly with a fork, then stir into the grapefruit-prosecco mixture.
3. Allow the curd to cook, stirring regularly, for about 10 minutes, until the consistency is thick and custard-like. It should feel heavy on the whisk.
4. Remove from the heat and stir occasionally as it cools. Pour into warm sterile jars, cover and seal. Allow to come to room temperature, then refrigerate. It will keep for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator.

Notes: You will find that many fruit curd recipes ask you to stir the mixture with a wooden spoon. However, stirring lightly with a whisk introduces just a little more lightness into the curd, which makes it slightly less solid and more wobbly. For a macaron filling this is the perfect consistency.

Assembling the macarons
Using two spoons place a small dollop of the the grapefruit prosecco curd filling on one of the shells and gently cover with another shell. Do not press. Continue to do this until you have used up all of the filling and shells.

Storing Macarons
If you are not going to be using them right away you can store the shells in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days.

They freeze well too but it is recommended to freeze them unfilled. To fill them take the shells out of the freezer 48 hours prior to serving and without defrosting fill them. This way the flavors will be allowed to blend as they thaw.

Notes: As the curd filling is fairly moist my advice would be to fill these about 30 minutes before you serve or want to indulge into them. Otherwise you will find that the shells will get too soggy. 

(source here)

Denise Medrano, aka the winesleuth, just published her latest review. The story also describe her recent trip to Veneto and visit to our vinery!

At the recent 2011 Taste of London wine awards, Riccardo Prosecco was awarded the Taste of Summer wine award. It was a tough competition, over 80 wines were blind tasted one early Wednesday morning and after much discussion and to-ing and fro-ing, Riccardo Prosecco won the day. Riccardo was up against some tough competitors but at the end of the day we decided it would indeed be the wine that was most emblematic of the Taste of Summer.

 

As I recall, I found them to be quite substantial wines, not just your run of the mill, slightly sweet, fizzy white wines. These were proseccos with a backbone, wines that were not just for aperitivo-quaffing but could also be enjoyed with a meal.I liked the wines but never really ran across them again and filed the name away. That is until this past April when I found myself on a holiday in the Veneto region. The Veneto is just a hop,skip, and a jump away from the prosecco producing region of Treviso so I hopped on a train and an hour and a half later, I was at the foot of steep hills of the Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG, chatting with Roberto Fornasier, the son of one of the brothers who own Riccardo Prosecco…… /….. One of the most important things that Riccardo stresses is that they know where all their grapes come from, something that is not always true in the prosecco growing region. Riccardo have a traceability certification which means they know where all their grapes come from, the farmers, the land, what’s used on the vines, etc.

Read full review here

Pics are courtesy of thewinesleuth

We are always very happy to receive and publish Riccardo’s friends reviews: here is Ms Gourmet Chick’s note on Taste of London 2011.

Sadly Taste of London was a total wash out.  Even though I attended on the one day which it did not actually bucket down rain the ground underfoot was reminiscent of the sort of mud bath you experience at Glastonbury.  Wellies were very much the order of the day. … /… Besides trying new food and restaurants I also couldn’t resist a few old favourites.  Bocca di Lupo’s shaved radish and celeraic salad (£3) is legendary for good reason.  The salad featured a generous amount of earthy truffle and refreshing pops of sweet pomegranate.  It was a bargain price for exactly the same dish which you pay £12 for at the restaurant itself. … /…I also searched out the Prosecco Riccardo stand for a prosecco I discovered at a supper club last year and which I was pleased to hear had won the taste of summer wine award at Taste of London.  A glass (£5) was just as good as I remembered.

Read more here

This is a Taste of London review by Helen Hill (aka: glamgirlgonegourmet):

Then we hit the wine jackpot – Prosecco tasting. Prosecco has a bit of a reputation as a poor man’s champagne, but it’s totally different and I’d much rather drink a good Prosecco that a bad champagne. We had seven sip tastings, five ‘normal’ Prosecco and two rose Prosecco (apparently illegal in Italy!) and then a glass of our favourite. Trying to remember which was our favourite at the end was a little taxing, but we really liked the DOC, even though the Prosecco Riccardo DOCG won the Taste of Summer Wine at the Festival’s food awards this year. Here are the UK seller (in the fetching yellow jumper – very knowledgeable) and the son of the producer (Italian, totally fed up with the British weather) with said award.

Read more and follow Helen here

On Wednesday night at the VIP Taste of London Secret Garden party we announced the winners of the inaugural Best in Taste Wine Awards sponsored by Blue Tomato magazine.

This competition was open to all the wine exhibitors and producers at Taste of London. We decided on three fun wine categories for the awards: Taste of Summer Wine, Foodies Wine and Indulgence Wine. I enlisted the help of Mickey Narea, sommelier at Launceston Place, Denise Medrano, The Wine Sleuth, and Roberto Della Pietra, sommelier at Gauthier Soho for the judging.

In order to taste the 80 wines entered, we set aside three hours for our blind tasting – this is the correct way to judge wines by covering up the labels. Each of the wines were then marked out of 20. We agreed on a shortlist of three wines per category. Our Foodies Wine Award shortlist revealed diversity, with Pizzato Concentus 2005 – a Brazilian red made from Cabernet Sauvignon Tannat and Merlot – gaining a place (Stand: Go Brazil); whilst a silky, smooth red from Portugal namedZimbro Douro 2006 made it to the Taste of Summer Wine Award shortlist. The Reserva Malbec 2008, Norton Argentina (Stand: Berkmann Wines) was a contender for the Indulgence Wine Award.

The trophy winners were:
Taste of Summer Wine Award - Prosecco Riccardo DOCG, Italy. Stand: Harmonicande Vintners. A superb, crowd pleasing bubbly.

Foodies Wine Award - Gran Feudo Edición Chardonnay 2008, Bodegas Chivite, Spain. Stand: Chivite. Classy, well structured, perfect for a foodie match.

Indulgence Wine Award - Felsina Vin Santo 2001, Italy. Stand:Design Wine. Delicate, exotic with balanced sweetness.

Make sure you taste all the winning wines at the show – they can be found in the Taste Wine Wine Village, except for the Reserva Malbec from Norton, which is featured on the Berkmann Wines stand. Keep looking out for more wine recommendations during the event.

Today is the last day of Taste of London: we are special guest of Harmonicande Vintners Ltd, stand W2 of Wine Boutique. Come and taste our award winning Prosecco.