Every sparkling wine fan knows that the world of bubbly doesn't begin and end in the Champagne region: America produces some delicious sparkling wines, Spain has it's famous cava, German's drink sekt, even France has its own sub-genre on non-champagne sparklers known as cremant. And, of course, Italy has prosecco; it's own version of champagne, right?

Certainly that's what we were all told when prosecco started taking over the brunch scene in the '00s. But as anyone who has ever sipped prosecco on its own can attest, though prosecco is certainly sparkling, flavor-wise it doesn't seem to have much in common with its bubbly brethren, and there's a good reason for that. When it comes to styles of wine, prosecco isn't Italy's take on champagne — franciacorta is.