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Il Ceo

Vespri Vespaiola Pét-Nat 2020

Price: $27.95
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Tasting notes

Vespaiola's ferocious natural acidity is the perfect engine for a pét-nat: the bubbles amplify the grape's lemon pith and white flower notes without needing any sweetness to balance them. The volcanic basalt soils of Breganze add a distinctive wet-stone mineral thread that runs through the entire palate. It is bone dry, arrestingly crisp, and unlike virtually anything else in the natural wine world.

BodyFruitTanninAcidity
Lemon PeelWildflowersMineralAlmond
  • Style: Sparkling white; hazy straw; bone dry; lemon pith, white flowers, volcanic mineral; 12% ABV
  • Grapes & Terroir: 100% Vespaiola; biodynamic (uncertified); volcanic basalt and tufo soils; Breganze, Sarcedo, Mason Vicentino; 250–350m elevation
  • Winemaking: Hand-harvested; native yeast fermentation; pét-nat (méthode ancestrale); in-bottle second fermentation; crown cap; unfiltered, unfined, zero sulfur
  • Serving: Serve at 45–50°F; no decant; invert gently before pouring to incorporate or let lees settle to base
  • Pairing: Salt cod, white asparagus, oysters, fried vegetables, fresh goat cheese
  • Similar To: For fans of high-acid pét-nats and skin-contact whites who want something genuinely obscure and mineral-driven

Il Ceo Vespri is a pét-nat made from 100% Vespaiola, the indigenous white grape of the Breganze hills in the Vicenza province of Veneto. The vineyards sit on volcanic basalt soils with iron and silica at 250–350 meters above sea level across the communes of Breganze, Sarcedo, and Mason Vicentino. Vines average 16 years old and are farmed biodynamically — no synthetic inputs, with Demeter-style 500 and 501 preparations and cover crops — though the estate holds no formal certification.

Grapes are hand-harvested and destemmed, then fermented spontaneously with native yeasts in stainless steel and epoxy tanks with no temperature control. The wine is bottled before fermentation is complete, so the second fermentation finishes in-bottle — the traditional méthode ancestrale, or rifermentazione in bottiglia. The result is sealed under crown cap, with no fining, no filtration, and nothing added at any stage.

Vespaiola is a high-acid variety historically grown around Breganze, where it is best known as the basis for the sweet passito wine Torcolato. When vinified dry and sparkling, as Davide Andreatta does here, the grape's intense natural acidity and delicate floral character come to the foreground without the weight of sugar. The name Vespaiola itself derives from the Italian word for wasp — a reference to the insects drawn to the grape's high sugar content at harvest.

The wine is hazy from the in-bottle refermentation and will show some lees sediment. The mousse is gentle and the finish is persistently mineral, consistent with the volcanic basalt terroir of the Breganze pre-Alpine foothills.

The grape variety's local pairing is baccalà alla vicentina — Vicenza-style salt cod braised in milk — and the wine's piercing acidity holds up well against the richness. It also works with white asparagus, which is a regional specialty, and raw or lightly dressed shellfish. A practical everyday match is any dish where you would reach for a very dry, high-acid sparkling wine: fried vegetables, fresh goat cheese, or briny oysters.

Wine details

Dry/Sweet:, Dry
Wine Type:, Sparkling Wine
Wine Style:, Sparkling
Grapes:, Vespaiola
Farming:, Organic and Biodynamic
Vintage:, 2020
Alcohol:, 12%
Country:, Italy
Region:, Veneto
Appellation:, Breganze DOC
Bottle Size:, 750ml
Sugar Level:, Zero Added Sugar

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.


Important Compliance Requirements

FedEx and other carriers we might occasionally use can only deliver wine to customers who are 21 years or older. Someone must be at the address to receive the package, carriers don't just drop a package and leave. They must ensure the person receiving the wine is 21 or older.


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If a package is returned to us after three failed delivery attempts, we can only re-ship the wine upon payment of a re-shipping fee, to be determined based on the shipping address and number of bottles. Shipping wine is extremely expensive. We are sorry about this, but we have no other choice. Please make sure there's always someone at the address you enter as your shipping address.

If you'd like to receive a refund for a package that was returned to us after FedEx made three delivery attempts, we can do that but we must keep a $20 refund fee; FedEx charges us a lot of money for returns, unfortunately, I can't stress this enough.


Re-routing a Package

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Heat/Frost damage

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Placed an order. What next?

1. You will receive an order confirmation email with your order summary.*

2. As soon as your order ships from the warehouse, usually within 2-3 business days, this applies to all shipping rates, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with your tracking information. 2DAY shipping refers to shipping time; we still need 2-3 business days to prepare an order. We need to pick and pack, QA, add printed collateral, and palletize the orders.

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4. The carrier will attempt delivery a maximum of 3 times. After 3 delivery attempts, your package will be sent back to our warehouse.**

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**If delivery is attempted 3 times without success, or if you fail to retrieve your package from the carrier depot by the stated deadline, the shipping fee will not be refunded to the customer.

Returns Policy

If you are not satisfied with your purchase, please contact us at (424) 414-2040 or via e-mail at hello@primalwine.com between 9 am and 5 pm Pacific Standard Time, Monday through Sunday, we would like to understand and try to solve your concerns. We can offer refunds only as store credit.

Producer profile

Il Ceo

Il Ceo is the project of Davide Andreatta, based in Breganze in the Vicenza province of Veneto. 'Il Ceo' is local Veneto dialect for 'the boy' or 'the kid.' Andreatta entered winemaking in 2012 helping friends with their harvest and cellar work, then rented his first vineyard in Breganze in 2014. He and his wife Francesca now farm 4.5 hectares spread across the communes of Breganze, Sarcedo, Mason Vicentino, Fara Vicentina, and Zugliano, at elevations of 250 to 350 meters above sea level.

The vineyards are planted over volcanic basalt and tufo soils with glacial morainic deposits, giving high mineral content. Many of the vines are old, with several parcels reaching up to 80 years of age. Andreatta farms biodynamically, using Demeter-style preparations (500 and 501), herbal treatments, cover crops, and green manure, with minimal copper and sulfur applied to prevent disease. The estate holds no formal organic or biodynamic certification but applies these practices throughout. His focus from the start has been on indigenous varieties, particularly Vespaiola and Groppello, which he identified as more disease-resistant than the international varieties he inherited in the vineyards.

In the cellar, Andreatta works on a zero-zero basis: spontaneous fermentation only with native yeasts, no fining, no filtration, and no sulfur dioxide added at any stage. Fermentation and aging take place in neutral vessels including stainless steel, epoxy tanks, and recycled wooden barrels. The Vespri pét-nat is bottled before fermentation is complete so the second fermentation finishes in bottle, sealed under crown cap, in the traditional méthode ancestrale.

Wine region

Veneto, Italy

Veneto is located in northeastern Italy, bordered by the Dolomite Alps to the north and the Adriatic Sea to the east, with Lake Garda to the west providing a moderating maritime influence. The region has a mostly continental climate with warm summers and cool winters, though alpine and lacustrine influences create significant microclimate variation between the mountainous north and the broad southern plains. Hillside zones, including the Breganze pre-Alpine foothills in the Vicenza province, benefit from diurnal temperature swings that preserve acidity and aromatic intensity in white varieties.

Veneto is Italy's largest wine producer by volume and holds 14 DOCGs and 29 DOCs. Its most internationally recognized appellations are Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG, Soave DOC, and the Prosecco DOC and DOCG zones around Conegliano Valdobbiadene. The Breganze DOC, established in 1969 in the Vicenza province foothills, covers a range of styles and is particularly associated with the indigenous Vespaiola grape, used for both the dry Vespaiolo and the sweet passito Torcolato. Soils in the Breganze zone are predominantly volcanic in origin, with basalt, tufo, and glacial morainic deposits.

Frequently asked question

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.

Signature on delivery is mandatory for wine deliveries. Please make sure someone is at the shipping address to sign for the package.

If applicable, please consider delivering the package to a business address to ensure someone is available to sign for the package.

We also have the option of delivering the package to a Carrier's store for pickup. Please reach out to us to coordinate.

Carrier will try to delivery a package up to three times before returning the package to us.

See here our shipping policy.

If you miss a delivery and a package gets returned to us we have two options:

1) Reship the package right away: due to the very high cost of shipping and returns, we must charge a re-shipping fee to be determined based on package size and shipping destination.

2) Consolidate the returned package with your next order: this option is free of charge and it's the most popular option.

See here our shipping policy.

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