DOC, DOCG, Rive, Cartizze.
These are the words you find on Prosecco labels, and they tell you where the wine comes from and how many rules stand behind it. Prosecco DOC is the wide denomination, of the plain and nine provinces. Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG is the one of the hills: smaller, stricter. Rive and Cartizze are its highest steps: the steep slopes of a single village, and one hill of 107 hectares.
Valdobbiadene, explained · 5 November 2026 · 4 minutesProsecco DOC: the wide denomination.
Born in 2009, it covers nine provinces across Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia: Treviso, Venice, Vicenza, Padua, Belluno, Gorizia, Pordenone, Trieste and Udine. Mostly plain, wide vineyards, machines that help. It’s the Prosecco you find everywhere: over six hundred million bottles a year, with yields up to 18 tonnes of grapes per hectare. Since 2020 there’s a Rosé too.
Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG: the hills.
Fifteen villages between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, hills only. DOC since 1969, DOCG since 1 August 2009, the forty-fourth in Italy; since 2019 the hills are a World Heritage site. The rules: at least 85% Glera, yields of no more than 13.5 tonnes per hectare, harvest by hand where the hill demands it. About 98 million bottles in 2025. The word «Superiore» is reserved for this DOCG and for Asolo’s, on the hills across the Piave river. On the label the name can be whole, «Conegliano Valdobbiadene», or one part only: SERALBA is «Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG».
Rive: the steep slopes.
«Rive», in local dialect, are the steep plots. In the DOCG there are 43, each one a village or a hamlet, and among them is Rive di Colbertaldo, ours. To write Rive on the label you need three things: grapes picked by hand only, lower yields (13 tonnes per hectare) and the vintage always stated. It’s the way to say: this wine comes from that hill, and no other.
Cartizze: one hill.
About 107 hectares between San Pietro di Barbozza, Santo Stefano and Saccol, in the municipality of Valdobbiadene. Even lower yields, 12 tonnes per hectare, hand harvest, and «Valdobbiadene Superiore di Cartizze DOCG» on the label. It’s the best-known hill of the denomination, and the one with the fewest bottles.
And SERALBA?
SERALBA is Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG, Brut and Extra Dry: the base of the DOCG, done well, in small numbers. No Rive, no Cartizze, for now. We like the words on the label to be few, and all true.
The two bottlesThree quick questions.
Is DOCG Prosecco always better than DOC?
It has stricter rules and comes from the hills: you usually taste it. But «better» is decided by whoever drinks it. Our advice is to try them side by side, with the same people.
What does «Superiore» mean?
It’s the word reserved for the two Prosecco DOCGs, Conegliano Valdobbiadene and Asolo. A Prosecco DOC can’t write it.
Is Cartizze a village?
No, it’s a hill with three hamlets of Valdobbiadene around it: San Pietro di Barbozza, Santo Stefano and Saccol. About 107 hectares in all.
- Consorzio di Tutela del Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG · www.prosecco.it
- Production rules of the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG (art. 1, 2, 4 and 7) · www.valoritalia.it
- Consorzio di Tutela della DOC Prosecco · www.prosecco.wine