This time of year is generally a period of craziness at work and at home. At work, there’s usually an end-of-the-year push to finish major projects before we enter a 4-week slow period. At the same time, there are also work-related holiday parties almost every night, so while work pulls in one direction, the social aspects of my job pull in another. None of that even begins to take into account the personal parties that Hubby and I are invited to, so with all of the work and festivities, life quickly gets complicated. Last week was a particularly busy one because my largest project since starting the new job was due Thursday. Fortunately, on Tuesday, I had a good, solid day of work and was able to make significant progress before heading home at a not-too-late hour. I used the evening to focus on planning my condo association’s holiday party—a Bubbly & BBQ Bash. Of course part of planning means tasting all of the sparkling wine before purchasing it in large quantities, and what better way to spend the later part of my evening than tasting Prosecco.

The Vignal Prosecco la Delizia (winery) ­­was a medium lemon color with surprisingly few bubbles that streamed up to the top of my glass in a slowly rising, single column. One the nose, there were apricots and peaches mixed with an artificial lemon scent. In the mouth, the sparkler was fizzy instead of bubbly and tasted like licking a lemon-scented handi-wipe, with the slightest hint of nectarines and peaches on the finish.

Is this worth a glass after work? Eh…if you have a bottle on hand, drink it, but I wouldn’t go searching it out either. At $12, this Prosecco wasn’t expensive, but it also wasn’t very good. I was really glad that I tasted this sparkler before the Bubbly & BBQ Bash, since there are other Proseccos at the same price point that I think would be more enjoyable and a better match with Red, Hot, and Blue’s traditional smokehouse Southern BBQ. Don’t get me wrong, I finished the bottle, but I prefer less handi-wipe flavors and more intense bubbles and fruit characteristics in my Prosecco.

Overall: 2 Corks