Montello is a hilly area in the Treviso area known as “the forest of Venice” because the lagoon inhabitants used to supply wood there to build their boats. Now it is a land of wine also thanks to the work of Count Piero Loredan, descendant of a doge, who introduced into the area, in Venegazzù, the vines he had fallen in love with during a trip to Bordeaux: Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. The wines thus produced began to gain a certain fame, and Loredan was lucky enough to even have the President of the French Republic Charles De Gaulle taste them, who was seduced by them, convinced that he had a great Bordeaux wine in his glass.
But this is only half the story. The count’s baton was taken over by Giancarlo Palla, who introduced the culture of sparkling wine to the area and purchased the Giavera del Montello estate and in 1976 began producing Metodo Classico, as well as Prosecco. Then his son Lorenzo enters the scene, bringing a more contemporary oenological vision and a more natural and sustainable approach. In 2001, the Ronco Blanchis agricultural company, in the Collio Goriziano, was purchased.
Today Loredan Gasparini has 60 hectares in total, 30 of which in Venegazzù and 30 in Giavera di Montello. And if the deep soul of the company remains linked to the reds of Venegazzù, the only cru of the Montello denomination. But today I’m talking to you about Cuvée Indigena, an Asolo Prosecco Superiore Docg that comes from an old vineyard in Glera, the Monti, almost fifty years old and located in Giavera del Montello. A wine that originates from Lorenzo’s desire to “obtain a different, unique Prosecco. I therefore thought of letting nature act, obtaining a new and different wine every year.” Cuvée Indigena is a Prosecco Superiore which has the characteristic of being subjected to a spontaneous fermentation method, which makes every vintage a magnificent challenge. Immediately after soft pressing, it is placed in an autoclave at a very low temperature and without commercial yeasts or sugars, so that fermentation occurs very slowly (more than eight months), then stopping when the time is right. The fermentation is so free that only at the end does the wine reveal its sugar content as Brut, Extra Brut or Extra Dry. Cuvée Indigena has an extremely thick and persistent perlage, a nose rich in ripe fruit and pastry notes and a creamy, sumptuous, complex mouth. A wine capable of changing the minds of those who, not always wrongly, have some mistrust towards Prosecco.
The other company sparkling wines are the Classic Method, the Asolo Prosecco Superiore Docg, the Tasso cru and the Monti Extra Brut. The reds are produced in Menegazzù: from the historic vineyard, planted in 1946, the so-called “Vigna of 100 plants” represents a small museum of biodiversity and still today produces the grapes destined to become the label called Capo di Stato, Doc Venegazzù Montello Superiore , the wine dedicated to De Gaulle, from a selection of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Malbec grapes. Venegazzù Doc Della Casa is one of the first examples of Bordeaux cuts produced in Italy, having been released in the 1950s. Falconera is a Merlot-based Montello Doc. The production of reds also includes other labels, including the Della Casa reserve, one of the first examples of Bordeaux produced in Italy, which came onto the market as early as the 1950s.
Then there are the Cabernet Sauvignon Montello Doc, the Malbec Colli Trevigiani Igt, the Montello Doc Punto a Capo e Spineda, a Merlot Montello Doc coming from a plot that was already indicated as a vineyard in Napoleonic maps and which is a tribute to the family who in 1500 began to enhance the Venegazzù wine-growing area. Only one white: Manzoni Bianco Marca Trevigiana Igt.