Casa Coste Piane Prosecco Valdobbiadene DOCG Frizzante Naturalmente 2024 750ml

95% Glera/5% other. Father Loris and sons Raffaele and Adelchi Follador farm about 7 hectares in the twisting, steep valley of Valdobbiadene, working quietly and quite independently of any consumer or commercial expectations. Their vines—mainly of Glera, plus a little of other co-planted local varieties—tend to be around 70 to 80 years old, with some up to 120 years, grown on glacial moraine soils on steep hillsides rich in limestone. Each of these old, head-pruned vines is tended individually and meticulously by hand and replaced as needed with massale selections from their vineyard. Their yields are far lower than the norm in this prolific winegrowing region. And that is only part of what’s rare about their wines.

The grapes are hand-harvested parcel by parcel, and each parcel is vinified separately. The fruit is kept in whole clusters and pressed extremely gently; fermentation is spontaneous and slow in the cold cellar, with indigenous yeasts only. After around two weeks, the partially fermented juice is separate with a paper filter into wine and sweet must. The wine, sitll in separate parcels, goes into to tank with its lees for the winter, while the must is frozen; in the spring, the parcels are blended and the wine is bottled with some of its must, re-starting fermentation which goes to complete dryness. The bottles are not disgorged, so the wine has a cloudy appearance and some sediment in the bottle, like a true, old-fashioned col fondo Prosecco.