Colfòndo Frizzante Prosecco NV

Decanter Magazine’s Susie Barrie MW asked her readers to “imagine floating on a cloud of soft ripe pears over a garden of jasmine” when tasting this “superb”, bone-dry and “out of the ordinary” Prosecco.

Most Prosecco is made in pressurised tanks, following a method devised by Federico Martinotti in 1895 before being clarified until crystal-clear. But winemaker Albino Armani’s family has been making wine just north of Venice since 1607 the old-fashioned way: Biodynamically grown Glera grapes are handpicked in the summer, gently pressed and fermented in tanks that are left outside over winter to keep them cool. This is then filled, unfiltered, into bottles where it undergoes a second fermentation much like Champagne. The spent yeasts, called lees, are left in the bottom of the bottle (Col Fondo in fact means ‘with the bottom’) where they impart spicy and toasty notes, plus a creamy texture. Unusually, those lees are left in the bottle resulting in a hazy wine; gently inverting it like a snow globe will enhance the buttery and spicy flavours and cloudy appearance.

Serve with celebrations, salads, freshly baked bread and cheese, and smoked or seared seafood. Simply a must try for fans of the cult Pét-Nat movement.