How to serve Prosecco: cold, calm and in the right glass

How do you serve Prosecco?

Serve Prosecco cold, about 6 to 8°C (43 to 46°F), in a fairly large tulip glass or a white wine glass rather than a narrow flute.¹ Open it quietly by twisting the bottle, not the cork,² pour it in two goes,³ and drink it young. Leftovers keep best under a proper stopper in the fridge.⁴

That’s the whole job. The rest is detail, and one myth involving cutlery. We’ll get to the spoon.

Is Prosecco served cold? How cold?

Yes, properly cold. The producers of the Conegliano Valdobbiadene hills recommend 6 to 8°C, about 43 to 46°F.¹ Champagne’s own guidance is a touch warmer, 8 to 10°C.³ Fresh, fruity Prosecco likes the colder end. Cold also keeps the bubbles in: carbon dioxide stays dissolved better in a cold wine.⁵

The easy way is the bottom of the fridge, a few hours before you need it.³ The bottom shelf, not the door. The door is for ketchup and good intentions.

How to chill Prosecco fast

Forgot? Fill a bucket, a big bowl or a small cooler with ice and water, add a handful of salt, and sink the bottle up to its neck. About 15 to 20 minutes and you’re there.⁶ Champagne makers give it 30 minutes in a bucket half full of water and ice.³ Either way, it beats standing by the fridge door sighing.

What glass is best for Prosecco?

A fairly large tulip-shaped glass, say the hill producers, and they do not recommend flutes or coupes.¹ The Champagne makers describe the same shape: tall, wider in the middle, narrower at the top, so the wine can show its aromas and the bubbles can develop.³ Prosecco is all about its smell of fruit and flowers. A glass with room in it lets you smell them.

At home, an ordinary white wine glass is the closest thing most of us own, and it does the job. The flute is for the toast, when you want to watch the bubbles rise and nobody is smelling anything. The coupe is for photographs. Perlage: what the bubbles are telling you.

How to open a bottle of Prosecco quietly and safely

Eye doctors take this seriously: a cork can leave the bottle at up to 34 miles an hour.² Their advice, written for Champagne, works for any sparkling bottle.

1. Chill it firstA cold bottle is calmer. In a warm one, the gas expands and the cork wants out.²
2. Don’t shake itShaking builds pressure. Carry it like you mean it.²
3. Foil off, hand on the corkTake off the foil and loosen the wire cage, keeping a hand over the cork from now on.³
4. Tilt it away from peopleHold the bottle at about 45 degrees, pointing at nobody, including you.²³
5. Twist the bottle, not the corkCover the cork with a napkin, hold it firmly, and slowly turn the base of the bottle.²
6. Let it sighKeep pressing down as the cork comes free, and keep it in your hand. You want a soft hiss, not a pop.³

If someone does get hit in the eye, see an eye doctor straight away, even if it seems fine.² The bang is for movies. In real life it is for the ER.

How to pour Prosecco

In two goes, slowly and steadily.³ Pour a little, let the foam settle, then top up. It looks unhurried, which is the whole look, and nobody’s glass foams over onto the table.

Clean glasses matter more than you’d think. The Champagne makers say to wash them in hot water without detergent and let them dry in the air or with a cloth, because how a glass is cleaned changes how the bubbles form.³ And let the guests hold the glass by the stem: the glass made for the hill producers’ wine has a long one, to keep warm hands away from the bowl.¹

How long does an open bottle of Prosecco last? Does the spoon trick work?

The spoon trick does not work. Sorry. A teaspoon handle in the neck has been tested more than once, and bottles with a spoon lost their pressure as fast as bottles left open.⁵⁴

What works is a proper stopper and the fridge. In one test, sealed bottles lost only about a tenth of their pressure over 48 hours; open bottles, and bottles with a spoon, lost about half.⁴ So: stopper on,³ bottle cold,⁵ and finish it in a day or two. That is not a rule. It is an invitation.

An unopened bottle doesn’t want to wait either. The hill producers say their Prosecco shows best in the year after the harvest, kept somewhere cool, dry and dark.¹ Buy it for this month, not for a special occasion that never comes.

Is Prosecco good? What to eat with it

Yes, when it is fresh and cold and poured into a decent glass. That is most of what this page is for. And it likes food more than speeches. A few good matches:

• Anything salty. Crisps, olives, salted almonds, a plate of prosciutto.
• Anything fried. Calamari, tempura, French fries. The bubbles cut straight through.
• Seafood and sushi. Light wine, light food, nobody falls asleep.
• Brunch. Eggs, smoked salmon, whatever is on the table at eleven.
• Nothing at all. Also a match.

Who’s pouring: a field guide

Every party has a person holding the bottle. You can tell a lot from how they hold it.

• The popper. Shakes it, aims it at the ceiling, gets a round of applause and a cork in the light fitting.
• The nervous host. Holds the bottle at arm’s length with both eyes closed. Read the steps above. You’re fine.
• The flute purist. Owns twelve flutes, inherited. Uses them for the toast, which is exactly right.
• The quiet pro. Napkin, twist, a sigh from the bottle, two-stage pour. Nobody noticed. That was the point.

Serving Prosecco for a crowd

For a big night, chill more bottles than you think, and keep one bucket going all evening. Our guide to Prosecco for New Year’s Eve has the countdown, and mini Prosecco bottles has the sums for a toast where everyone gets their own.