Imagine you can watch a winemaker at work. You observe him while he works the land and tends the vineyard… while, with a worried look, he scrutinizes a black sky full of rain, or perhaps hail… while he checks the wine in the cellar to see that it is developing towards what will be the final product, the one for which he has worked so hard.

Imagine that the wine you saw being created before your eyes, you can now contemplate in a glass. Don’t you think you would feel much more involved in the tasting of it?

Every glass of Prosecco Superiore DOCG has its own story. A story not everyone knows but deserves to be told.

The Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG: from the drawing board to the label

In the Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG area the producer is usually, although not always, a winemaker with his own vineyards who, as a supplier of grapes to other wineries, decides to go it alone and create his own independent label.

His right-hand man or woman is the oenologist, whose first task is to establish the feasibility of the business plan. When it has been ascertained that the horticultural characteristics of the soil are compatible with the qualitative objectives of the producer, the oenologist will ensure that all the necessary stages for production are up to the desired standard; from taking care of the vineyard through to the processing of the wine in the winery.

Pruning and yela for hectare

There are those who say that wine, first and foremost, is produced in the vineyard. That is not to be taken light-heartedly. The first objective is to take care of the vineyard, at every stage constantly checking the health of the grapes to ensure that, at harvest time, they are as intact as possible.

There are many important procedures. Among these there is one, pruning, which relates to a concept you have probably heard of – yield per hectare. So what does that mean?

Through pruning, cutting the long branches that would produce a lot of fruit, the winemaker reduces the quantity of grapes per plant. Fewer grapes on the plant means less stress to the vine and, above all, ensures greater quality for the remaining fruit, being able to absorb all the nutrients.

This is one of the fundamental conditions for creating great wines; controlled, incidentally, by various procedural guidelines. In the case of Prosecco, the yield per hectare* destined for the DOC is equal to 180 quintals**, while for the DOCG the quantity drops to 135: the greater the selection of the grapes, the better the quality of the wine.
*1 hectare = 10,000 m²
**1 quintal = 100 kg

Harvest, de-stemming and soft pressing

Generally in September, when the grapes are judged to be ripe, through sensory or chemical analysis, the harvest begins. Given the type of territory is mostly hilly and sometimes steep, the harvest is done by hand for Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG.

As soon as the grapes are harvested, they are placed in crates which must be taken to the winery as soon as possible. It is essential to avoid too much sun exposure and heat, otherwise a spontaneous fermentation could start which is very difficult to correct later.

In the winery, the first thing to do is de-stemming, a mechanical process that serves to separate the woody part of the bunch, the so-called stalk, from the grapes. As the operation proceeds, these are conveyed by the de-stemmer to a refrigerated coil of pipes that maintains the grapes at a constant temperature between 15° and 18°.

The grapes flow from the refrigerated coil into a press where, at a controlled temperature of about 15° or 16°, the juice is extracted, separating the pulp from the skins. The result of this phase, called “soft pressing”, is the free run must; the wine in its rawest state, and very cloudy because it is extremely concentrated. 100 kg of grapes produces more or less 70 litres of wine.

The must passes from the press, without interruption, directly into large steel tanks where very slowly the base of the wine will start to be created.

Keep in mind that in reality, from the harvest to the pressing, only a few minutes have passed. All these operations must be carried out quickly and at controlled temperatures to avoid unwanted fermentations that could seriously compromise the quality of the wine.

A consideration…

We are only at the beginning. There is still a long way to go to taste our wine and we will see it in detail in the next articles. However, it is good that one thing is clear to you immediately – that any high quality wine is always the result of a constantly monitored process. And a great team effort.

Discover our DOCG wines!