What is the difference between champagne, cava and prosecco?

Champagne comes only from the Champagne region in France, cava from defined areas in Spain and prosecco from nine provinces in Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

The Comité Champagne summarises the rule briefly: champagne only comes from Champagne. The name belongs to the place, not to the method. Anyone outside that area who works in the same way may call the result sparkling wine, but not champagne.

Prosecco DOC comes from the provinces of Belluno, Gorizia, Padua, Pordenone, Treviso, Trieste, Udine, Venice and Vicenza. Cava is a Spanish designation of origin with its own delimited zones.

Champagne and cava ferment a second time in the bottle that you open later, while most prosecco ferments a second time in a closed tank.

With champagne and cava, sugar and yeast are added in the bottle. The carbon dioxide that forms has nowhere to go and dissolves into the wine. In Champagne this method is called prise de mousse and in Spain the traditional method.

Prosecco spumante is made in a closed stainless steel tank, the autoclave. That method is called the Martinotti method. The wine is then bottled under pressure. Prosecco spumante contains at least 11 percent alcohol.

Champagne matures at least 15 months in the cellar, a vintage champagne at least 36 months, and cava at least 9 months.

With cava, longer maturation brings other names too. A reserva lies at least 18 months, a gran reserva at least 30 months and a cava de paraje calificado at least 36 months. The longest-matured classes may only come on the market as brut nature, extra brut or brut.

With prosecco, the emphasis is not on long maturation. For the rosé version, however, the regulations prescribe a tank time of at least 60 days.

Champagne relies on pinot noir, chardonnay and meunier, cava on macabeo, xarel-lo and parellada, and prosecco must consist of at least 85 percent glera.

In Champagne, pinot noir covers 38 percent of the vineyard area, chardonnay 31 percent and meunier 31 percent. The other permitted grapes, including arbane, petit meslier, pinot gris and pinot blanc, together fill 0.3 percent.

For cava, chardonnay, subirat parent, pinot noir, garnacha, trepat and monastrell, among others, are also permitted. For prosecco at most 15 percent may come from, among others, verdiso, bianchetta trevigiana, perera, chardonnay or pinot bianco.

Champagne is a protected designation of origin, so only sparkling wine from the Champagne region that meets the regulations may bear that name.

That is how it works for the other two as well. Cava and prosecco are likewise protected names with their own regulations on area, grapes, method and maturation. The name on the label is therefore not a style indication but a guarantee of origin.

If you want to know what you are holding, look at the name of the area and the sweetness designation. Together they say more than the word bubbles.