2019 Il Colle Prosecco "Cartizze" DOCG

Veneto, Italy

This comes from the Cartizze vineyard, the unofficial “Grand Cru” of Prosecco. The crème de la crème. The tippy top of the quality pyramid. This is as good as it gets. 100% Glera – from the Cartizze vineyard. Fermented in stainless steel with selected yeasts at low temperature for about 10 days. Aged 30-40 days in autoclave. No ML. 30-32 g/L of residual sugar. Bright straw-green, with a lively stream of small bubbles. Pungently spicy aromas of fresh apricot, green apple and minerals. Then dense and minerally in the mouth as well, showing similar flavors to the aromas. Creamy texture. Conveys great palate presence and complexity, and finishes with floral persistence.

Vineyard – Cartizze
Cartizze, the “grand cru” vineyard of Conegliano Valdobbiadene, whose Proseccos are revered above all others. Cartizze stands majestically against Valdobbiadene’s undular landscape, its vines cascading down from precipitous cliffs. Cartizze is truly as steep as the textbooks say, and clearly impossible to mechanize. Second, beyond the inherent labor costs, Cartizze is purportedly the most expensive vineyard property in Italy. Not Barolo, not Montalcino, but Prosecco lays claim to Italy’s most valuable agricultural ground. At the pinnacle of Prosecco’s quality pyramid, Superiore di Cartizze, as it is officially titled, is not its own separate appellation but a sub-category of wines within the larger Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG.

Due to the ripeness of the grapes, Superiore di Cartizze is traditionally bottled “Dry,” meaning 17 to 32 grams per liter of residual sugar (the same required metrics for Prosecco DOC and Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG) and typically at the upper half of that range. Superiore di Cartizze masks its sugar well, the density of its orchard fruit profile and heady perfume overpowering the impression of sweetness. At most, the wine will taste off-dry, just a notch sweeter than a lower-tier Prosecco (whose residual sugar will more likely sit within the “Extra Dry” spectrum of 12 to 17 grams per liter). ~Mike Guerra