National Prosecco Week
Close your eyes. Listen — not just to the words, but the room. The soft creak of a chair, the hum of air breathing through a building, the gentle clink of glass beads. A strip of scented pear. Smooth cloth followed by a coarse surface. A sphere of cold glass and the smell of rain-on-rocks. This is not the opening to a meditation class. It’s the beginning of a Prosecco tasting.
To celebrate National Prosecco Week in the U.S., a group of wine lovers was invited into a completely different kind of wine experience. One led entirely in the dark — blindfolded and guided by none other than Dr. Hoby Wedler, a blind sensory expert from Northern California, who, with astonishing eloquence and joy, expands palates and minds through multisensory wine education.
Prosecco, often treated as either a crowd-pleaser or a base for brunch cocktails, took on wholly new dimensions in this tasting. We didn’t see straw-colored bubbles climbing a flute, or examine hues of pink in a rosé Brut. Instead, we touched. We listened.
We savored.
The kit we received was unorthodox: polished river stones, spiced pear, corkboard, fragrant herbs, and even softened shards of safety glass. As we tasted, blindfolded, those tactile elements came alive — clues to textures and temperatures evoked by the wines. One wine was paired with smooth silk on one side and a rough fabric on the other — a metaphor for the duality of its texture and acidity.
Another brought to mind cold, wet pebbles and the fragrance of grapefruit blossoms — a crisp evocation of springtime on a Northern Italian hill.
Sound also became a character. A headphone track mimicked the swirl and pour of Prosecco into a glass, the faint, effervescent fizz crackling through speakers like vinyl static. “Hear how the bubbles move,” Dr. Wedler invited. “That is the sound of Prosecco.”
With each pour, we were transported. One rosé, delicate and expressive, carried hints of strawberry and a whisper of violet.
We were told to notice the “crispness of cold rain,” framing its high acidity without the need for traditional descriptors. Another, vibrant with stone fruit and floral musk, came to life against a background of mango and toasted pumpkin seed — the kind of taste you don’t analyze, but feel.
Extra brut, brut, extra dry — the terms were still there, but took on more tactile meaning. Sharp or pointy bubbles? Cool or warm aromas? One guest compared a wine’s texture to candied ginger and paprikash, its sweetness masked by savory notes that touched something deeper than descriptors alone.
Perhaps the most moving moment came at the end, when I asked Dr. Wedler how he — being blind from birth — became so enamored with wine. He paused, then smiled.
“I tasted a Pride Mountain Cabernet,” he said. “And in that one sip, I saw more than a wine. It painted a picture. It let me understand what people mean when they talk about art.”
That’s the power of wine — and especially of Prosecco, a wine so often taken for granted. It can be bubbly and bright, festive and fun. But under the guidance of someone like Dr. Wedler, it becomes something else: a canvas of aroma and texture, of sound and sensation. An invitation to go deeper.
In tasting blind, we learned how to see.
The list of Wines
- Antonio Facchin & Figli Prosecco DOC Treviso Frizzante
- Ca’ Furlan ‘Cuvée Mariana’ Prosecco DOC Rosé Brut 2023
- Ruggeri ‘Argeo’ Prosecco DOC Treviso Brut
- La Gioiosa Prosecco DOC Brut
- Fantinel Prosecco DOC Extra Dry
- Perlino Prosecco DOC Rosé Extra Dry 2023
