Did You Know Treviso’s Wine Is the Official Toast of the 2026 Winter Paralympics?

Here is the full article — clean, copy-paste ready, all links embedded naturally: Did You Know Treviso’s Wine Is the Official Toast of the 2026 Winter Paralympics? A few days ago, something quietly extraordinary happened in Piazza dei Signori. The Paralympic Flame — the torch that had been lit at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England and carried by 501 torchbearers across 2,000 kilometres of Italian roads — passed through the heart of Treviso. It moved through the streets of the old city, under the medieval porticoes, past the frescoed facades, and into the main square where the civic officials of Treviso were waiting to receive it. There, in Piazza dei Signori, beside the flame, was a bottle of Prosecco DOC in a limited edition created specifically for the 2026 Games. A toast was made. The Vice President of the Prosecco DOC Consortium, the Mayor of Treviso, the President of the Veneto Paralympic Committee, and Paolo Tonon — a Paralympic archer and bronze medalist at the Paris 2024 Games — raised their glasses together in the square. It was, in miniature, a perfect encapsulation of what this moment means for this region. I am Igor Scomparin, a licensed local guide born and raised in the Veneto, and I have spent my career showing travelers what this territory is really made of. And right now, in March 2026, what it is made of is on a global stage unlike anything it has seen in decades. How Did Prosecco DOC Become the Official Wine of the Games? The story begins in July 2023, when the Prosecco DOC Consortium — the body that protects and promotes the denomination across its nine provinces in Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia — signed a partnership agreement with the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation to become the Official Sparkling Wine Sponsor of both the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The decision, as Consortium President Giancarlo Guidolin explained at the time, had an impeccable territorial logic. Cortina d’Ampezzo — the mountain resort that forms the alpine heart of the Games and hosts the skiing and snowboard events — lies within the province of Belluno, which is one of the nine provinces of the Prosecco DOC denomination. The wine of the Games was not imported from somewhere else. It came from here. From the hills and valleys that the athletes would be looking out over from the starting gates. The investment the Consortium made to support this partnership is, by their own description, the largest in the denomination’s history — an eight-million-euro commitment that placed Prosecco DOC in front of a projected global audience of over three billion viewers across both the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Sixteen producer companies participated in the official activities: Brilla!, Cà di Rajo, Cantine Maschio, Casa Vinicola Bosco Malera, Italian Wine Brands, La Marca, Le Rughe, Masottina, Mionetto, Pitars, Ponte 1948, Serena Wines 1881, Torresella, Villa Sandi, Val d’Oca, and Valdo — names that anyone who has visited the Prosecco Road through the Treviso hills will recognise immediately. What Is Prosecco DOC and Why Does It Matter That Treviso Is Its Heart? Before going further, it is worth clarifying something that even many wine-lovers get wrong. Prosecco is not a grape variety. It is not a production method. It is a place. Prosecco DOC — the Denominazione di Origine Controllata — is a geographically defined wine that can only be produced from grapes grown and vinified in nine specific provinces: Treviso, Venice, Vicenza, Padua, Belluno, Gorizia, Pordenone, Trieste, and Udine. The primary grape is Glera, a variety native to northeastern Italy, though small percentages of other local varieties — Verdiso, Bianchetta Trevigiana, Perera — may also be used. Treviso is the capital of this denomination in every meaningful sense. The headquarters of the Prosecco DOC Consortium are based in the city. The province of Treviso contains the largest concentration of Prosecco DOC production in the entire denomination. And within Treviso province, the UNESCO-listed hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene represent the absolute pinnacle of Prosecco production — a landscape of steep, hand-tended vineyards that has been shaped by human hands and Glera vines for centuries and was recognised as a World Heritage Site in 2019. With an annual production now approaching 667 million bottles — the 2025 harvest confirmed Prosecco DOC as the world’s most consumed Italian wine denomination — this is not a regional curiosity. It is a global phenomenon, and its home is here. If you have never walked through these vineyards in person, understanding how Prosecco compares to other great sparkling wines is a good place to start before you visit. Treviso Airport Became a Prosecco Showcase One of the more striking aspects of the Consortium’s campaign for Milano Cortina 2026 was its visibility strategy — and the role Treviso Airport played in it. The exterior glass facade of the Canova Terminal and the baggage carousel areas were taken over entirely by Prosecco DOC branding, making the airport the first and last thing international visitors saw when arriving in or departing from the Veneto during the Games period. Massive advertising installations also appeared at Venice Marco Polo, Milan Malpensa, and Bergamo Orio al Serio. A vaporetto in Venice was branded with the denomination. The Via Manzoni in the centre of Milan was decorated with Prosecco DOC illuminations celebrating the Olympic and Paralympic values of perseverance, respect, and legacy. Twenty-three positions at ski lifts and mountain venues across the Alps carried the denomination’s branding, with an estimated 6.6 million impressions at the competition venues alone. It was, as Guidolin put it, not simply a marketing operation. It was a declaration of territorial belonging made in front of the entire world. The Paralympic Flame in Piazza dei Signori The moment the Paralympic torch passed through Treviso was one of genuine emotion for anyone who understands what this city is and what it represents to this denomination. The flame had already travelled through Cortina d’Ampezzo, Venice, and Padua on its way to the opening ceremony at the Arena di Verona. When it arrived in Treviso, it was welcomed not as a passing curiosity but as a recognition. The city is the administrative and symbolic home of Prosecco DOC. Having the torch pause here, in the same piazza where locals have been gathering for aperitivo for centuries, and having that moment marked with a toast from a limited-edition Paralympic bottle, was a statement of identity. Paolo Tonon, the Paralympic archer who attended the toast, brought to the moment something that no official could provide: the human face of Paralympic sport, the evidence that the values the denomination had chosen to associate itself with — determination, excellence pursued without limits, the refusal to be defined by difficulty — were not abstractions but lived realities. His bronze medal at Paris 2024, won in a sport that demands extraordinary precision and stillness, was exactly the kind of story that Prosecco DOC had in mind when it described the Paralympic Games as the most authentic expression of those values. What This Means if You Are Visiting the Veneto Right Now If you are in Treviso or the surrounding Veneto during March 2026, you are present at one of those rare moments when a region steps onto a genuinely global stage. The Prosecco DOC denomination has spent years building its international reputation bottle by bottle, export market by export market. The Milano Cortina 2026 Games — both Olympic and Paralympic — compressed that reputation-building into a single, sustained, internationally broadcast moment. Journalists and wine professionals from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, China, and Germany were brought directly into the heart of the denomination as part of educational tours organised around the Games. Publications including Wine Enthusiast covered the territory from inside. The world has been looking at this corner of Italy. And what it has been seeing — the vineyards, the hills, the cellar doors, the mountain backdrops — is what has been here all along. For those who want to experience the Prosecco denomination properly, the best time to visit a cantina is when the season is just beginning, the winemaker has time to talk, and the hills are showing the first green of the growing year. Which is to say: now. The Prosecco Road through Conegliano and Valdobbiadene is within easy reach of Treviso and, in March, is as quiet and as beautiful as it ever gets. A Denomination Built on Territory, Not Just Taste One of the things I try to explain to every guest I take into the Prosecco hills is that the wine is inseparable from the landscape that produces it. The steep, terraced slopes of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene — the UNESCO-listed portion of the denomination — are not simply picturesque. They are the direct cause of the wine’s character. The angle of the hillsides determines how much sunlight the Glera vines receive. The altitude creates the temperature differences between day and night that allow the grapes to develop both sugar and acidity. The hand-harvesting that the steepness of the terrain makes necessary ensures a care and selectivity that mechanised viticulture cannot replicate. Every glass of Prosecco Superiore DOCG from these hills carries, in its bubbles and its fresh floral notes, the direct consequence of decisions made on those slopes over generations. The DOC designation was established in 2009 and today encompasses over 12,000 wineries across the nine provinces. It is, in terms of global consumption, the most successful Italian wine story of the twenty-first century — and it is a story that has its roots, its administration, and its soul in Treviso. Understanding this makes the Paralympic partnership legible in a new way. The Consortium was not simply buying advertising space. It was, as Guidolin put it, telling the world that Prosecco DOC is not just a wine. It is the territory that produces it, the communities that live it, the work of thousands of Venetian and Friulian producers. The Games were the occasion — and a once-in-a-generation occasion at that, given that the Winter Olympics had not been in Italy since Turin 2006 and before that Cortina 1956 — to make that case to the world. How to Experience Prosecco DOC Properly Before You Leave the Veneto The best way to understand Prosecco DOC is not to read about it. It is to stand in a vineyard in the hills above Conegliano, look south toward the Venetian plain and north toward the Dolomites — the same mountains where the Paralympic athletes competed — and taste a glass of Prosecco Superiore poured by the person who made it. I take guests on private tours of the Prosecco Road from Treviso throughout the year. The tours are fully private — no shared groups, no rushed tastings at crowded cellar doors — and are tailored to whatever level of wine knowledge and interest my guests bring. Whether you want a gentle introduction to the denomination over an afternoon or a full-day immersion in the hillside wineries with lunch at a family-run osteria, I can arrange it. If you want to understand what connects a bottle of Prosecco to an alpine ski run in Cortina, to a Paralympic torch ceremony in Piazza dei Signori, to the frescoed facades of a city that has been producing great wine since before anyone thought to give it a denomination — come and see it in person. I also recommend reading my guide to grappa, the other great spirit of this territory, and how Treviso has quietly built a craft beer scene alongside its wine culture — because the Veneto, as ever, does not limit itself to a single story. 📩 Get in touch to arrange a private Prosecco Road tour from Treviso. The vineyards are waking up, the cantinas are open, and the world has just been reminded that this is where the best bubbles in Italy come from. Frequently Asked Questions Why is Prosecco DOC the official wine of the Milano Cortina 2026 Games? The partnership between the Prosecco DOC Consortium and the Milano Cortina 2026 Foundation was announced in July 2023 and has a clear territorial logic. Cortina d’Ampezzo, the alpine resort at the heart of the Games, lies within the province of Belluno — one of the nine provinces of the Prosecco DOC denomination. The wine of the Games was not a neutral commercial choice. It was a statement that the Games were taking place in Prosecco country, and that the most consumed Italian wine denomination in the world — with annual production approaching 667 million bottles distributed across 195 countries — was the natural host on the podium. The Consortium’s investment in the partnership, estimated at around eight million euros, is the largest in the denomination’s history. What is the difference between Prosecco DOC and Prosecco Superiore DOCG? Prosecco DOC is the broader denomination, covering nine provinces across Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia and encompassing a wide range of styles and producers. Prosecco Superiore DOCG — specifically the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG, whose hills were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019 — is a higher-tier designation within the same family, restricted to the steep hillside vineyards between the towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene in the Treviso province. The Superiore designation requires higher minimum alcohol levels, lower maximum yields, and hand-harvesting on the steep terrain. The result is a wine of greater complexity and territorial character. If you are visiting the Veneto and want to understand the difference in person, a private tour of the Prosecco Road is the most direct and enjoyable way to do it. Can I visit Prosecco wineries from Treviso? Yes, easily. The Prosecco Road — the route that connects the hillside cantinas between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene — begins approximately thirty kilometres north of Treviso and is accessible by car in under forty minutes. I arrange private winery tours from Treviso for guests at all levels of wine knowledge, from complete beginners to serious enthusiasts. The tours include visits to family-run producers, guided tastings with the winemakers themselves, and — where guests wish — lunch at an osteria in the hills. March is a particularly rewarding month to visit, as the cantinas are quiet, the winemakers have time to talk, and the vineyards are just beginning to show the first signs of the new growing season. Igor Scomparin is a licensed Tour Guide and Tour Leader for the Veneto Region, certified Travel Agency Director, and founder of tourleadertreviso.com. He has been featured in Rick Steves’ travel guides to Italy and Europe since 2008.