To not have to drink Prosecco like it's an “occasion”? (Lighthearted)

[IceNoSlice]

I like Prosecco. At home I might share a bottle with DH on a Friday night instead of a bottle of flat wine. It’s just wine, but fizzy.

But not to my parents. To them there is a whole production of getting out the flutes, popping the cork and evenly pouring the whole bottle out for everyone to have a glass. Which is fine for the first bottle - I get it is a celebration drink. But having to do that with every bottle??

On Christmas Day we had 7 adults, so a bottle gives you about half a normal glass each. I just wanted to drink my fizz in peace - as my drink of choice. But no. 3 bottles of shared out Prosecco later and mum was saying “ooh can’t we move on now I fancy a G&T, do we have to open another bottle?” Yes mum, have a G&T! But let me have a glass of fizz please?

anyone else?

I'd happily drink fizz rather than white wine as its normally lower in alcohol.
Majestic L'anglois Cremant is lovely £12 a bottle

Well, I agree with you Op. Prosecco is just another wine which happens to be fizzy. As is champagne for that matter, but often more expensive.

But your parents clearly feel otherwise. As you know they are going to be like this, including deciding when to turn the Prosecco tap off, can you take your own, in a chilly bag , for that time of the visit?

Majestic. Graham Beck, £12 a bottle.

I don't know why this is such a big deal for one day with your parents, OP. Why is everyone on MN so miserable?

You don’t have to accept it, just say no thank you 🤣

My in laws are a bit like this. Sparkling wine wouldn't have been something then had when they were younger, so it's always seen as a 'treat' for special occasions, even if just a cheap Prosecco. MIL also calls every sparkling wine champagne, which I think is also a reflection that she sees fizz as posh

Lol

They're both just sparkling wine, I'm not sure liking Cava makes you a 'snob'. You get it for 8 quid or something in Tesco so you're hardly drinking something amazing yourself. 😂

I think you have to offer the other drinks or people will assume prosecco is the drink.

I would have been offering g&t, beer etc after first glass unless I was hoping everyone would continue with prosecco.

I'm cooking for 12. The (ample) drinks are over there (from Prosecco to Gin and everything in between). If you wait for me to offer, you won't get anything, so please just help yourselves and don't give me the additional mental load of anticipating your 'can't we just haves' and your 'let's not open'.
I'll crack on with my drinks, you crack on with yours. (And if you can pour one for the chef at the same time, even better).

(Is how my Christmas Day looked! So yeah, YANBU).

Loling at the 'I like Prosecco' ignorers.

Hahaha this response is the definition of finding the negative at any opportunity. The post is lighthearted. Cheer up buttercup

If it’s your drink of choice then I don’t think that’s weird at all. I don’t like normal wine but I can easily have a couple of glasses of Prosecco so I get what you mean. Also can’t stand champagne much prefer the taste of Prosecco.

snap!! I was cooking for 12 too (7 adults 5 kids)
it was my own Prosecco that I bought. I had also provided a whole range of other beverages

It's not poor man's champagne, it's simply a different drink, with a different taste, from a different region.

It's fine to not like it.
There are lots of wine I'm less keen on (I don't like sweet wines, I'm not keen on some of the very oaked tasting wines, or the 'buttery' type ones, for example) and I just don't choose it.

Even when it comes to champagne, there are some I prefer to others and a couple I'm not keen on at all.

I prefer Cava, too, or a Cremant. Both generally far nicer than Prosecco imo.

There are some decent English sparkling wines being made now, too. Both Breaky Bottom (Sussex) and Chapel Down (Kent) are producing really decent sparkling wines.

But surely you only drink cava in Spain, no? Or if you don't like prosecco at all, why do you drink it in Italy?

Just explain that you drink prosecco as your regular drink and you'll happily finish off a bottle (so it won't get wasted), and they can move on to something else.

I think it's just a bit of a cultural/ generational thing seeing it as a special occasion drink. There are people who have raised an eyebrow at me when I've casually popped a bottle like it's no big deal (including my DH when we first got together). Just explain it's what you do and move on.

So Cava is ok to drink outside of Spain, but drinking Prosecco outside of Italy is tacky? Why? And Prosecco is completely different from champagne - it’s lighter and brighter than champagne, which lots of people prefer. Champagne is definitely not superior, it’s just different. What are your views on Crémant or Asti Spumante? Do only plebs drink those?

Italians might think Champagne is a poor man's Prosecco. The fact you like Cava suggests you prefer the taste of the grape grown in France or Spain to the ones in Italy, which is perfectly acceptable. To be so rude about a country's export because you prefer something else is very telling of your personality, and less acceptable.

Calling a drink "tacky" just shows you have no class of your own.

I think the issue here is that the parents make sure that everyone has prosecco, as it is a celebration drink. Making a big song and dance over opening each bottle becomes a bit much once you are onto the third.

Out of nosiness, what is the reaction when someone says “No thanks, I’ll just have a beer instead”?

Someone in my life went through a phase where she would only drink prosecco. I like it well enough every so often … but that got old quite quickly. Having someone buy a bottle of prosecco in a pub and then look put out that you are on lager (say) and don’t want prosecco can get awkward.

I can't drink alcohol anymore, but I recall in my youth visiting Barcelona and having a glass of local cava, off the tap no less, in what appeared to be a branch of TK Maxx. Or possibly woolworths, it was a long time ago.
There is no way preferring cava makes you posh.
I worked for a wine merchants when I left University many years ago and remember the manager telling me that Australian fizzy wine was made in industrial steel vats! Pretty much all wine including champagne is mass produced. And I can consume none of it. I became allergic during menopause, wasn't expecting that! So if you like prosecco and don't have a drink problem enjoy it whilst you can.

I agree with PP it comes from an earlier time when the only fizz would have been champagne, a rare treat opened with ceremony. They probably enjoy that
part. Agree though that you only really it for the first bottle. I’d just have a quiet little bottle open in the fridge and drink that.

I like it and we drink it in the house instead of flat wine, it can be comparable in price, especially if getting it from the supermarket and not for an occasion.

I do like iron horse curvee which isn't posh but you just can't get hold of it in the UK.

Some Prosecco costs £80 a bottle and is flipping gorgeous - it’s not ‘poor mans champagne’ at all. It’s an italian sparkling wine, the same way that champagne is a ‘French sparkling wine’ made from grapes grown in the Champagne region - it uses the same grapes as English sparking wine (chardonnay and pinot noir mainly) whereas Prosecco uses the glera grape. The same/similar fermenting processes are used.

Snobbery about it is what means French champagne producers can charge extortionate prices - because people ’think’ they are wine experts.

ETA I have happily drunk Veuve Cliquot and a lovely Prosecco from Tanners this Christmas,