Above: Costadilà is a member of new group of winemakers who make “Prosecco colfòndo.” Note the sediment at the bottom of the bottle (photo taken on our dining room table).
Thrilling news of a new group of Prosecco producers who make their wines colfòndo (con il fondo, i.e., aged on their lees and thus with sediment) came to my attention via Mr. Franco Ziliani’s brand spanking new blog devoted to the world of Italian sparkling wines, Le Mille Bolle (A Thousand Bubbles).
In many ways, Prosecco is the wine that started it all for me so many years ago when I started writing about wine. Back in 1998 when I got my first gig as an enojournalist, it was with a feature story on Prosecco. I know the appellation well because I spent three summers touring the provinces of Treviso and Belluno with a cover band.
To my palate, lees-aged Prosecco is the real Prosecco (not the yeasted banana candy crap that we see too often in this country). Lees-aging gives the wine the saltiness that makes Prosecco raised in Valdobbiadene stand apart from the crowd. I love it and am dying to taste more.
Above: That’s me in the middle rehearsing in the famous Birreria at Pedavena where we played 4 sets a night, 3 nights a week (no kidding). I was in my 20s and the music and beer (often unpasteurized, btw) flowed all night long. How do you like the hair?
Dulcis in fundo (pun intended): one of the producers, Riccardo Zanotto, used to come hear us play back in the day and we shared more than one beer together…
Che bei ricordi! What great memories of rock ‘n’ roll with the Dolomites as our stage and salty, gritty, utterly delicious Prosecco!
Do Bianchi 
jeremy
one of my myths of the ’90s
welcome friend of the prosecco col fondo
just look at my baby! how have i never seen this photo?!
great post, love salty!
Thanks for have written about Prosecco Colfondo. We are sure we will do a great job with it! We are proud of being part of this new “Colfondo group” and hope people starts to appriciated more this kind of Prosecco.
Courtesy of Jeremy, we just served Costadila at my mother-in-law’s birthday party last weekend. We were honored to have some Friulian friends in attendance and they didn’t like the Costadila…they LOVED it. One of them took photo of the label so they can look for it when they get back to Cordenons! Great stuff.
I can see it now. Prosecco colfòndo on Sundays @ Jenny’s in ATX on chicken Sh*t bingo nite
Replace Lone Star beer on Sundays @ Jenny’s with Prosecco colfòndo? Mission: Impossible
dude, that picture you rawking out is fuckin’ RAD
i forgot! that proseco looks all fun – i might have to find me sum of dat!
hi jeremy, i’m Carolina, i’m a “colfondista”. thanks for the article on our nectar. I hope we can meet soon!
I opened a bottle of that Costadilà about 3 weeks ago at home…it was just so fresh. I think it’s an ideal wine for a restaurant, too.
Very interesting! Thanks Jeremy. Maybe it can finally sway me toward Prosecco :) Also, it’s about time someone dedicated a blog to Italian sparkling wine (in English!) – I’ve been thinking about that too! IMO, Franciacorta and Trento DOC produce sparkling wines that stand up to Champagne. Unfortunately, due to lack of brand awareness, they are not popular in this country (US) because they are priced like Champagne but are certainly not known. Who is going to pay $100/btl for Ferrari vintage Brut?! Anyway, I am digressing.
That shot of you with long hair – oh my!
Great post, as usual!
Hi Jeremy, here in London we’re making a lot of noise as well and from our side, I just had a meeting recently with Robert McIntosh
and tasted some of them. He was very encouraging and founded it interesting as well, hope all this effort will finally get to help prosecco lovers understand there are more forms of Prosecco and Glera and they deserve to be discover as they have so much to tell!
Will take this occasion to give you and family a warm hug, see you soon!
Stefano
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