The best Prosecco to buy 2026, taste tested by experts
Prosecco is a phenomenally popular drink in the UK. It’s somewhat sweet and soft in flavour and more affordable than other sparkling wines, such as champagne. Prosecco is great to bring along when visiting a friend for dinner, heading to a party or having an impromptu celebration. Pink or rosé prosecco is a staple of boozy brunches, and prosecco’s affordability means it can be transformed into refreshing spritzes or decadent cocktails without worrying about the cost.
Most proseccos are simple wines. Don’t be afraid to mix them with peach juice to make a bellini, turn it into a spritz or add lemon sorbet and vodka for a sgroppino.
But, what makes a good prosecco? We’ve rounded-up the top bottles to find a prosecco to suit everybody, from the best budget proseccos to bottles that are perfect for cocktails or gifting. Read on to discover our pick of the best.
For more, visit our reviews section and find over 400 practical buyer’s guides, including taste tests of rosé wine, gin, vodka and more.
Best prosecco at a glance
- Best everyday prosecco: Alessandro Gallici Prosecco NV, £12.99
- Best prosecco for gifting: Alessandro Gallici Prosecco Anniversario 2024, £15.99
- Best alternative prosecco:
- Best prosecco for showing off: The Emmisary prosecco rosé brut, £17.90
- Best for parties: Tesco Finest prosecco superiore, £10
- Best easy drinking prosecco: Romeo & Juliet prosecco di Treviso brut DOC NV, £12
- Best off-dry prosecco: Cinzano prosecco, £10.50
- Best prosecco for entertaining: The Wine Society prosecco brut NV, £10.75
- Best prosecco for complexity of flavour: Sacchetto prosecco extra dry Fili NV, £14.55
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What is the best prosecco to buy?
Alessandro Gallici prosecco NV
Best everyday prosecco
Star rating: 4/5
This classic extra-dry prosecco is an accessible version of the UK’s favourite prosecco style, offering great value considering the wine’s quality.
Delicate floral aromas join typical orchard fruit notes of apple and pear, alongside a zip of lemon, apricot, peach and very pleasant hints of honeydew melon. Dry and fresh with a relatively light body, fairly low alcohol content and fine bubbles, it’s everything you’d want from an everyday extra-dry prosecco. JH
Available from:
Alessandro Gallici prosecco Anniversario 2024
Best prosecco for gifting
Star rating: 4/5
Award-winning producer Alessandro Gallici has released a special cuvée to celebrate the company’s 50-year anniversary. Made entirely from the glera grape from the finest organic vineyards in the village of Ronade, this prosecco millesimato is produced using the Charmant method, where secondary fermentation takes place in large, sealed tanks rather than individual bottles, ultimately preserving the fresh, fruity character of the grapes.
The result is a crisp, vibrant prosecco loaded with notes of lemon, peach, apple and pear, with creamy mousse and great balance. The unusual bottle also makes this prosecco an interesting option for gifting. JH
Available from:
Ribolla Gialla spumante cuvée Biele Zôe 2024
Best prosecco alternative
Star rating: 4.5/5
This isn’t technically a prosecco, but it’s a great alternative. Produced in Friuli, the wine is made predominantly using the ribolla gialla grape as opposed to the glera, which is required for prosecco. The same method is used, however, achieving a crisp, dry style that’s similar, albeit typically dried and less sweet.
Produced by Valerio Civa at his family winery – which has extensive vineyards and a high-tech cellar – this wine uses grapes that are picked early for freshness, plus a 15 per cent portion of chardonnay for roundness. Gorgeous ripe apple notes are married with higher acidity and a more citrus-forward flavour profile than extra-dry prosecco, while the finish is crisp, bone-dry and eminently refreshing. JH
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The Emmissary prosecco rosé brut
Best prosecco for showing off
Star rating: 4/5
With its clear glass bottle and gold label, this prosecco will appeal to those looking to show off (or post their bottle on Instagram). Happily, the contents within live up to the glitzy packaging. This has a delicious orange sherbet quality, combined with ripe strawberries and a creamy texture. HJ
Available from:
Tesco Finest prosecco superiore
Best for parties
Star rating: 3/5
Prosecco Superiore is a cut above the ordinary stuff, as the name suggests. This is grape-y and lemony – just the thing to get in bulk for parties. It has a refreshing quality that’s lacking in most supermarket proseccos, which will have everyone reaching for another glass. HJ
Available from:
Romeo & Juliet prosecco di Treviso brut DOC NV
Best easy drinking prosecco
Brut-style, and you can really taste it. There are pastry notes on the nose, then on the palate it’s really dry with some bitter lemon and almonds. It’s a really nice prosecco that’s easy to drink. HJ
Available from:
Cinzano prosecco
Best off-dry prosecco
Cinzano doesn’t just make vermouth, but also a range of wines like this prosecco. If you like your fizz a little on the sweet side, then look no further. This would be extremely nice with some lemon drizzle cake or mixed in an Aperol spritz. HJ
Available from:
The Wine Society prosecco brut NV
Best prosecco for entertaining
Prosecco is actually a much better drink than champagne to serve at events such as weddings, as it’s cheaper, lower in alcohol and much less acidic, so it’s easier to drink. This dry, refreshing sparkler would be our pick for entertaining. HJ
Available from:
Best prosecco for complexity of flavour
There’s lots going on with this one. It initially tastes quite sweet but finishes with a dry and refreshing flavour. There’s a nice saline quality with peachy fruit and even a touch of toastiness at the end. HJ
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Prosecco vs champagne
People often ask what the difference is between prosecco and champagne. Well, they’re both sparkling wines from specific regions: Champagne in northern France, and Treviso in north-eastern Italy, but the similarities end there. Champagne is dry, highly acidic and usually expensive, whereas its Italian rival is soft, sweetish and affordable – no wonder it’s so popular.
Part of the difference in price is down to prosecco’s production method. To make champagne and most sparkling wines, a still wine is fermented for a second time in the bottle with added yeast and sugar, which creates carbon dioxide – aka fizz.
In prosecco, this secondary fermentation takes place in a tank, then the wines are filtered and bottled under pressure. This method is less labour intensive – unlike champagne, which has to be aged for a minimum of 15 months – so prosecco can be sold straight away. Not only is this method cheaper, it preserves fresh fruit flavours, too. This is the fundamental difference between the two wines: champagne tastes of mature yeasty flavours, whereas prosecco should be all about fresh fruit. The term frizzante on the label, as opposed to spumante, means the wine is less fizzy.
Only wines from the Prosecco region, not far from Venice, can be called prosecco. The principal grape is called glera, but it used to be called prosecco, before the wily Italians changed the name so that the Australians couldn’t use the magic word prosecco on their bottles. Prosecco tends to be much sweeter than champagne. Confusingly, wines labelled dry are actually quite sweet. Extra dry is drier, though it still contains between 12-17g of sugar. If you want a proper dry wine, look for the word ‘brut’ on the label.
In a good prosecco, you’ll often find green apple, peach or citrus flavours and often some floral notes, too. With better examples, you may notice flavours of almonds and biscuity champagne-like notes. Don’t be afraid to mix it with peach juice to make a bellini, Aperol or Campari to make a spritz or, most hedonistic of all, lemon ice cream and vodka, which is called a sgroppino. Our version, icy kir, swaps the ice cream for berry sorbet.
How to open prosecco
When opening a bottle of prosecco, remember it will behave far better and more predictably if it has been left to sit and chill for a few hours. Warmth and/or rough handling both make for an explosive cork situation, meaning more mess and waste. Fizz should go into glasses, not onto ceilings.
- Make sure you have your glasses ready and within easy reach. Then, take your bottle and remove the foil; there should be a tag or perforation line to make this easy and neat.
- Once this is done, grip the neck of the bottle in one hand with your thumb over the top of the caged cork.
- From here on in, keep the bottle pointed away from yourself and anyone present, especially people’s faces – about a 45 degree angle is good.
- With your other hand, untwirl the cage fastening. Uncover your thumb, lift off the cage and replace your thumb over the cork.
- If you can feel the cork pushing to leave the bottle already, get a glass ready. Otherwise, with the bottle gripped in one hand, slowly pull up the cork with the other. It may be quite stiff at first – if so, alternate pulling and twisting motions – but as you go you’ll start to feel the pressure from within helping you out.
- Ease it up, always with your hand over the cork in a firm grip and, as you hear a pop, you know you’ve opened it.
If everything went smoothly, you have a bottle at 45 degrees, with a touch of vapour wafting out. Let that excess gas escape for a few seconds, then in smooth, gentle motions, pour a small amount – just a splash – into each glass in turn. Now return to the first glass and, tilting it also at around 45 degrees, top up slowly, until no more than two-thirds full.
If the champagne is very lively and the mousse is rising to the top of the glass despite a slow pour, just move onto the next one and come back to it. That mousse is the fizz escaping, and in excess, leaves you with a flat drink, and nobody wants that.
Don’t overfill the glass, as it will warm up far faster there than in the bottle, and warm prosecco is a shame. If you have a bottle where the cork is straining to be free as soon as the cage is removed, then you will have to move fast.
Once the cork is out, it will be followed by froth, which should go straight into that readied glass. Keep pouring off the excess into your glasses one by one until it subsides, then top up as before.
How we tasted prosecco
Our prosecco taste test covered over 15 bottles, aiming to find the best example of a good prosecco. In a good prosecco, we’re looking for clean, fresh fruit flavours like green apple, peach or citrus, and often some floral notes, too. With very top-quality prosecco, you might also notice flavours of almonds and biscuity, champagne-like notes. A lower-quality or poor example of a prosecco may taste sugary or artificial, so these were marked down and not included. Prosecco is naturally sweeter, but there should be enough acidity to balance the sugar.
Prosecco cocktail recipes
A bottle of prosecco is celebratory enough to drink on its own, but it’s also a versatile addition to cocktails. Classic prosecco cocktail recipes include an Aperol spritz or passion fruit martini. Make a jug of apple prosecco punch to feed a crowd, try a sweet peach & rose fizz in summer or pair with coconut and rum in a tropical coco fizz. There are more than just cocktails, too: a box of homemade prosecco truffles make a great edible gift, while this showstopping prosecco cake recipe is the perfect birthday party centrepiece for a prosecco fan.
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