Prosecco col fondo is Prosecco that finishes fermenting inside the bottle it is sold in, and keeps the lees, the yeast left behind by fermentation, rather than filtering them out. The name is Veneto dialect for "with the bottom", meaning the sediment lying in the base of the bottle. It is dry, softly fizzy and cloudy, and it is how the Veneto made Prosecco before the pressurized tank arrived.
Almost all of it is Glera, the same grape behind every bottle of Prosecco, and almost all of it is sealed with a crown cap. You will also see it labeled sui lieviti, Italian for "on the lees", or rifermentato in bottiglia, "refermented in the bottle". They describe the same wine.
How col fondo compares to tank Prosecco and pét-nat
Col fondo and the Prosecco on a supermarket shelf are the same grape from the same hills. What separates them is where the bubbles are made and what happens to the yeast afterwards.
Scroll the table sideways to see all three columns
| Col Fondo | Tank Prosecco | Pét-Nat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grape | Glera, almost without exception | Glera, by law | Any grape at all |
| Where the bubbles form | Inside the bottle you buy | In a sealed pressure tank | Inside the bottle you buy |
| Method | Rifermentato in bottiglia, on the lees | Charmat method, also called the tank method | Méthode ancestrale |
| Yeast sediment | Left in, and visible in the base | Filtered out under pressure | Usually left in |
| Pressure | Under 2.5 atmospheres, a frizzante prickle | Around 3 atmospheres, a spumante foam | Roughly 1 to 3 atmospheres |
| Sweetness | Dry, with no dose added | Usually off-dry, set by the Brut or Extra Dry label | Dry in almost every case |
| Closure | Crown cap | Cork and cage, or a screwcap | Crown cap |
| How it looks | Hazy, and cloudy once roused | Bright and clear | Hazy in most cases |
Pressure and alcohol are typical ranges. Frizzante and spumante are legal categories: under 2.5 atmospheres is frizzante, above it is spumante.
Why some bottles say "sui lieviti" instead
In 2019 the Conegliano Valdobbiadene consortium wrote the bottle-refermented style into the DOCG rules under the name Sui Lieviti, "on the lees". That is the phrase you will find on a bottle carrying the DOCG. Col fondo is the older name, the one growers and drinkers in the Veneto have always used, and it stays on bottles made outside the DOCG rules, which includes most of the low-intervention ones.
Two names, one wine. If a label says either, the sediment is meant to be there.
What col fondo tastes like
These are the four tasting notes we log most often across the col fondo we carry.
White peach
Soft orchard fruit, the note that turns up in more of these bottles than any other
Lemon
The acidity, which is what stops a wine this low in alcohol from tasting slack
Pear
Glera's own signature. Tank Prosecco has it too, sweeter and more obvious
Bread
The lees talking. They give a savory crust edge that filtered Prosecco loses
- It is dry, and that is the first surprise
- Most people meet Prosecco as an off-dry wine, because tank Prosecco is finished with a measured amount of sugar and the Brut or Extra Dry on the label tells you how much. Col fondo gets none. The yeast eats the sugar and the wine goes out as it lands, which is usually bone dry.
- The texture matters more than the bubbles
- At under 2.5 atmospheres the fizz is a prickle, not a mousse. What you notice instead is weight: time on the lees gives the wine a soft, slightly chalky body that a filtered wine does not have.
- Cloudy is a choice, and it is yours
- Poured from a bottle left standing, col fondo is hazy but pale. Roll the bottle first and the yeast folds back in, the wine goes properly cloudy, and the savory side comes forward. The Veneto has been arguing about which is correct for a long time.
- It is a food wine before it is an aperitivo
- The dryness and the autolysis note put it closer to a light beer than to a celebration wine. It handles salumi, fried vegetables, hard cheese and anything oily better than tank Prosecco does.
How col fondo is made
- Glera is picked and pressed, and the juice ferments through autumn in tank or barrel.
- Winter cold slows the yeast and the fermentation stops early, with some sugar still unfermented.
- In spring the wine is bottled on that leftover sugar, or with a measure of the same wine's own must, and a crown cap goes on.
- The cellar warms, the yeast restarts, and this time the carbon dioxide is trapped. The wine finishes fermenting in the bottle you eventually buy.
- The lees fall to the base and stay there. No disgorgement, no filtration, no dose of sugar afterwards.
Is that the ancestral method or a second fermentation
Both answers are in use, and the difference is one step. Where the wine simply stops in the cold and restarts in spring with nothing added, that is one continuous fermentation interrupted by the weather, which is the méthode ancestrale and makes the wine a pét-nat in all but name. Where the producer adds a measure of must or fresh juice to restart it, that is a second fermentation, closer in principle to how Champagne is started even though everything else about it is different.
Either way the wine finishes in the bottle and keeps its lees, which is what the name is describing. If you want the wider category, read our guide to pét-nat.
How to open and drink col fondo
- Chill it, but not to death. Two or three hours in the fridge. Colder than about 8C and the lees texture, which is the point of the wine, goes numb.
- Choose clear or cloudy before you open it. Standing upright and poured gently, it comes out pale and hazy. Rolled slowly on its side a few times first, the yeast folds back in and the wine pours cloudy and tastes broader. Neither is wrong.
- Open it with a bottle opener, over the sink. The crown cap gives no warning and the pressure is low but real.
- Pour into a wine glass, not a flute. The savory side needs room. In the Veneto it often goes into a small tumbler.
- Leave the last inch. The heaviest sediment sits in the punt. Stop pouring when it starts to move, or split it deliberately between glasses.
It is the wine to open with salty food. Prosciutto, fried sage, anchovies, grilled artichokes, a hard aged cheese. It also cuts through fried chicken better than almost anything.
Common questions about col fondo
- Is col fondo the same thing as pét-nat?
- Close, and often identical in practice. Pét-nat names a method used anywhere with any grape. Col fondo names one regional style: Glera, from the Veneto, refermented in bottle and left on its lees. A col fondo made with no additions is a pét-nat; the reverse is not true, because a pét-nat from Chenin Blanc in the Loire is not col fondo.
- Is the sediment safe to drink?
- Yes. The lees are the same material that gives Champagne its bready character, left in rather than removed. It is inert and it is the reason the wine tastes the way it does.
- Why is it drier than the Prosecco I know?
- Because nothing is added at the end. Tank Prosecco is finished with a sugar dose that the Brut, Extra Dry or Dry on the label measures out. Col fondo skips that step entirely.
- Can I age it?
- Not for long. A year or two from bottling is the window. The lees keep it fresher than an unfiltered still wine would be, but this is not a wine built to develop.
- Why is it not called Prosecco on some labels?
- Prosecco became a protected place name in 2009, and the grape was renamed Glera at the same time. A wine made outside the DOC or DOCG boundaries, or outside their rules, cannot use the word, so it goes out as Vino Frizzante or under an IGT name instead. That says nothing about quality.
Try a col fondo
We carry col fondo from Costadilà, Casa Belfi, Col Tamarie and others working the same hills. They sit in our pét-nat collection alongside the wider category, since both are bottle-fermented and undisgorged.
Shop col fondo and pét-nat Shop Costadilà Read the pét-nat guide
