The Wine: Buffo Prosecco Col Fondo NV
Buffo Prosecco Col Fondo NV is a white sparkling natural wine from Veneto, Northeastern Italy, made from 100% native grape varietal Glera. The grapes are estate-grown organically and biodynamic preparations are also used. Spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts, unfined, unfiltered, no added sulfites.
Prossecco Col Fondo (which in Italian means “with sediment”) is Prosecco made following a different method from the ubiquitous clean and bubbly Prosecco available everywhere, from gas stations to high-end Italian restaurants. The method is called “Ancestrale” (ancestral).
Prosecco Col Fondo is a slightly drier, and less effervescent wine, with distinct notes of yeast and packed with complex aromas - in this more similar to a Champagne than to your regular industrial Prosecco.
The Producer: Col Tamarie
From the hills above Vittorio Veneto, in San Lorenzo, Alberto and Marta lead 4.5 hectares of vineyards facing south, southeast. The vineyards sit at 450 m above sea level (just outside the Prosecco DOCG area but in the Prosecco DOC territory), completely surrounded by woods, and grow from limestone and rocky soils of morainic origin.
They treat the plants with unicist homeopathy, use biodynamic preparations, and are certified organic. Alberto and Marta take care of the vineyards and the territory to enhance the energies of nature, resorting only to tiny uses of sulfur and reduced quantities of copper. They cultivate native grapes — Glera, Bianchetta, Boschera, Grapariol, Perera, and Verdiso — to produce 20,000 bottles of Col Fondo sparkling white wine, spontaneously fermented with their own indigenous yeasts, unfiltered, unfined, and without the addition of sulfur.
The Region: Veneto
Veneto is one of the most important wine regions of Italy, located in the North Eastern corner of the Italian peninsula. It borders with Trentino-Alto Adige (north), Friuli-Venezia Giulia (north-east), Emilia-Romagna (south), and Lombardy (west).
The capital of Veneto is Venice, which is also its most populous city, followed by Verona, Padua, Vicenza, Treviso, and Rovigo. The east coast of Lake Garda, the biggest Italian lake, is part of Veneto and so is the tract of Alpine foothills called Venetian Prealps.
Veneto is the leading Italian region for quantity of wine produced – even though wine-producing regions such as Piedmont, Tuscany, Lombardy, Puglia, and Sicily all have bigger territories.
Some of its most famous wines are Amarone della Valpolicella, Valpolicella, Soave, and of course Prosecco. Other less known but equally delicious wines are Recioto della Valpolicella, Recioto di Gambellara, Raboso del Piave, and Bardolino.
Veneto’s main characteristic is perhaps the great variety of wine types produced, obtained mostly from indigenous grape varietals – Corvina, Glera, and Garganega being the most common.
This is due as much to its specific geography and climate as it is to rather peculiar winemaking techniques such as the grape drying technique employed to make Amarone della Valpolicella, Veneto’s most famous red wine.