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No-Fuss Guide · No. 26

Sparkling wine, Champagne, Prosecco and frizzante (frisante): what's the difference? (and Cava)

Sparkling wine is the category: wine with bubbles that come from fermentation. Champagne, Prosecco and Cava are sparkling wines from one place, each with its own rules. And frisante (semi-sparkling wine) is something else, with less pressure. In Brazil, the law tells the two apart by the gas: sparkling wine has at least 4 atmospheres; frisante, 1.1 to 2.

The five side by side

Champagne, Prosecco and Cava are names of origin: each has a rulebook with the place, the grapes and the way to make it. Sparkling wine and frisante are classes of wine: the law says what they are, not where they come from.

What Brazilian law calls sparkling wine

Lei 7.678, Brazil's 1988 wine law, divides wine into classes, and sparkling (espumante), frizzante (frisante) and carbonated (gaseificado) are three of them, each with its own definition. Sparkling wine is wine whose gas comes only from a second fermentation: done in the bottle (the traditional method) or in large vessels (the Charmat). It must have at least 4 atmospheres of pressure at 20 °C and 10% to 13% alcohol. In the same sentence, the law says that “champanha” and “espumante natural” are names for this same class. And the Ministry of Agriculture's labeling rule (IN 14, from 2018) requires writing, next to the name, the class by sugar: brut, demi-sec and the rest.

Sparkling Moscatel has a class of its own. In the law, its gas comes “from fermentation in a closed vessel, of must” from Moscatel grapes, and not from a finished wine. It also needs 4 atmospheres, but stays between 7% and 10% alcohol and has at least 20 grams of sugar left over from the grape.

In between there's carbonated wine (vinho gaseificado): pure carbon dioxide put into the wine, with 2.1 to 3.9 atmospheres. It's not sparkling wine, because the gas didn't come from fermentation.

The yardstick changes from place to place

In the European Union, sparkling wine can get its gas from a first or a second fermentation, as long as it comes only from fermentation. And the numbers are different. This isn't a clash of sources: each place has its own law. Atmosphere and bar are almost the same unit.

Europe also has quality aromatic sparkling wine, made from aromatic grapes on an official list: at least 3 bar and from 6% alcohol in the glass (10% counting the sugar left over from the grape).

Bottle or tank: the two ways to make the bubbles

In the traditional method, the second fermentation happens inside the very bottle that goes to the table. It's the rule for Champagne, for Cava and for the Brazilian designation of origin Altos de Pinto Bandeira. In the Charmat, the second fermentation happens in large closed vessels, the autoclaves. Italians call this method Martinotti, and it's the only way the DOC Prosecco sparkling wine is made. Both methods count as sparkling wine under Brazilian law.

Champagne: the place, the grapes and the 15 months

Champagne is a French designation of origin, only for white or rosé sparkling wine. The zone is in northeastern France, in five departments: Aisne, Aube, Haute-Marne, Marne and Seine-et-Marne (the house has a page on the Champagne region).

There are eight main grapes: Arbane, Chardonnay, Chardonnay rose, Meunier, Petit Meslier, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. Today's rules also accept Voltis, a new grape bred for adaptation, on up to 5% of each grower's vineyard and 10% of the blend.

There's only one way to make it: second fermentation in a glass bottle, and the wine is sold in the same bottle in which it got its bubbles (only bottles smaller than 75 cl or larger than 150 cl may be swapped). The bottle spends at least 12 months on the yeasts before the deposit is removed, and Champagne only goes on sale 15 months after being bottled for the second fermentation. One with a declared vintage, the millésimé, waits 36 months.

Prosecco: a place, and the grape is called Glera

Prosecco is a place name: the first documents, from the end of the seventeenth century, speak of a white wine from the territory of Prosecco, near Trieste. The grape is Glera (in Brazil, some wineries still write “prosecco” on the label as the grape's name), and up to 15% can come from other grapes on the list (Verdiso, Bianchetta trevigiana, Perera, Glera lunga, Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio and Pinot Nero vinified as a white).

The Prosecco DOC covers nine provinces in northeastern Italy, in Veneto and Friuli: Belluno, Gorizia, Padova, Pordenone, Treviso, Trieste, Udine, Venezia and Vicenza (the house has a page on Veneto). And it has four types: still, with no bubbles; spumante; spumante rosé; and frizzante, their lightly sparkling wine.

The DOC spumante is made only in autoclaves and has at least 11% total alcohol (the alcohol it already has plus what the leftover sugar would give). The rosé takes 85% to 90% Glera and 10% to 15% Pinot Nero vinified as a red, and spends at least 60 days in the autoclave. The frizzante can ferment in the bottle or in the autoclave, and has at least 10.5% total alcohol.

Inside the Prosecco zone lies the Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG, on the hills of 15 communes in the province of Treviso. There, the spumante that ferments in the bottle and keeps its deposit carries “sui lieviti”, on the yeasts, on the label.

Cava: the Spanish one made in the bottle

Cava is a Spanish designation of origin for quality sparkling wine, made by the traditional method: second fermentation in the bottle, and at least nine months on the yeasts, in the same bottle. It has at least 3.5 bar at 20 °C and 10.8% to 12.8% alcohol.

The white grapes are Macabeo (Viura), Xarel·lo, Parellada, Malvasía and Chardonnay; the reds, Garnacha Tinta, Monastrell, Pinot Noir and Trepat. Macabeo, Xarel·lo and Parellada make up about 85% of the grapes that become Cava. And the zone isn't one continuous region: it's municipalities in four zones, Comtats de Barcelona (in Catalonia), Valle del Ebro (with La Rioja, Álava, Navarra and Zaragoza), Viñedos de Almendralejo (in Badajoz) and Requena (in Valencia).

Frizzante and sparkling: the difference is pressure

Frizzante (frisante), in Brazil, is wine of 7% to 14% alcohol with 1.1 to 2 atmospheres of pressure at 20 °C. The gas can be natural or added, and the name changes: with gas from its own fermentation, it may be called frisante natural; with added carbon dioxide, it has to be called frisante gaseificado. In Europe, semi-sparkling wine sits between 1 and 2.5 bar, with at least 7% alcohol, and the rule for added gas is the same idea. In Italy, it's called frizzante: Prosecco has its own.

Altos de Pinto Bandeira: sparkling only, and only in the bottle

Altos de Pinto Bandeira, in the Serra Gaúcha, is the Brazilian designation of origin made only for sparkling wine (Vale dos Vinhedos also has sparkling wine, alongside still wine). It covers an area of 65 km² in the municipalities of Pinto Bandeira, Farroupilha and Bento Gonçalves. Only three grapes go in there, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling Itálico, the last at most 25% of the blend. The method is traditional only (Charmat isn't authorized), and from the liqueur that starts the second fermentation to the removal of the deposit, at least 12 months go by. The house's Brazilian sparkling wines are in the search.

Can you call Brazilian sparkling wine “champanhe”?

Under Brazilian law, which keeps its 1988 text on this point, yes. Lei 7.678 bans selling wine with a geographic name on the label that doesn't match its true origin, but makes an exception: the domestic product may use “champanha”, “conhaque” (cognac) and “Brandy”, because they're in common use in the country. And, as you saw above, the same law treats “champanha” as another name for sparkling wine.

What changes is the Interim Trade Agreement between Mercosur and the European Union, which protects European names of origin and has been in force since May 1, 2026. In the annex of names, anyone who was already using “Champagne”, “Champaña” or “Método Champenoise” continuously may keep using them for at most 10 years from its entry into force, with the real origin legible and visible on the label. The same rule applies for 10 years, in Brazil, to those who call the grape “Prosecco”, and for 7 years to “método Asti”. The annex doesn't mention the spelling “champanha”, and the 1988 law keeps the same text: how the two rules will be reconciled, the house can't say yet. In exchange, Brazilian wine names gained protection in Europe, among them Vale dos Vinhedos, Pinto Bandeira, Farroupilha and Altos Montes.

And the sugar? Brut, nature, demi-sec and the extra dry trap are in the guide to sweet sparkling wine. How the bubble is born and what it tells you in the glass, in the guide to perlage.