It's fall here in the Prosecco Hills of northeastern Italy. We're just outside Farra di Soligo, a village about 30 miles northwest of Venice. This region is known for growing the glera grape used to make the sparkling white wine called prosecco. Once considered a poor cousin to Champagne, prosecco now eclipses it in global popularity. More than 600 million bottles of prosecco were produced in Italy in 2018, about twice the amount of Champagne.

Of those 600 million bottles produced a year, about 90 million bottles of prosecco come from the Prosecco Hills region. Like most Italian grape-growing areas, the Prosecco Hills region boasts a spectacular landscape. Small plots of grapes have grown on narrow grassy terraces known as 'ciglioni' since the 17th century. From above, the ciglioni produce a checkerboard effect with vines growing both horizontally along and vertical to the hillsides. Some plots even use the 19th-century 'bellussera' technique of training the grapevines to grow up along trees. This region is so distinctive, it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019.