Colfondo: The origin story of this wonderful expression of Prosecco

Colfondo: The origin story by Bele Casel grape grower Luca Ferraro.

I have learned a lot of things from my winemaker friends. I always listen attentively to what they have to say, especially when it comes to older grape growers.

The history of our land is passed down, unbroken, through their stories and their experiences.

Did you know, for example, that our old folks used to call ColFondo el vin de butiglia (wine in a bottle)? They began to call it vin col fondo only after the Martinotti method was introduced. That was when a need for two categories of Prosecco first emerged. [For first-time readers, ColFondo is ancestral method Prosecco; it means literally with sediment.]

But the thing I can’t stop thinking about is the story about ColFondo that winemaker friend of mine told me.

There once was a time, he said, when winemakers made “hard” wines. They were tannic because even the white grapes were macerated with their skins for a few days.

In order to make them more approachable, they would add a little bit of sugar before bottling.

In the spring, when the temperatures would rise, fermentation would begin again and that was how vino col fondo was made.

The people who used to come buy the wine from the wineries began to fall in love with the bubbles and this was how el vin col fondo arrived at its golden age.

—Luca Ferraro
grape grower, winemaker