Heroic Viticulture by 3rd Generation Winemakers
When you live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, do you grow blind to its charms? If you were born there, immersed in it every day of your life, do you not notice its splendor?
Carlo and Fabio Sanzovo, third generation winegrowers of Prosecco, were born and raised in a beautiful green land of breathtaking beauty: rolling hills and steep green ridges covered in vines, dotted with Italian villages, marked by church steeples, and woven by country roads - all at the base of the jagged white-capped peaks of the Dolomites. Adding to this picture: everyone around you drinks sparkling wine daily!
Perhaps you’re living in a dreamland. No, you are living in Valdobbiadene, the historic heart of the highest quality Prosecco in Italy, where wines produced from this region can have “Superiore” mentioned on the label. This land is in the province of Treviso, just 30 miles north of Venice as the terrain gets hilly and gaining altitude in its climb up toward the eastern alps. When I asked Carlo Sanzovo what it’s like to live there, he shrugged and said, “When you live in one place you can underestimate its value. But we live in a small town so there is a lot of nature around us. There isn’t pressure of the big cities with things like traffic. There’s quiet here.”
The Sanzovo Family: Prosecco from the Col del Balt hill
Fabio and Carlo amongst the green hills of their Valdobbiadene vineyards.
Fabio and Carlo Sanzovo, of the soon-to-be re-branded Col del Balt estate winery, have achieved the delicate balance of respecting and paying tribute to the region’s rich winemaking tradition, continually innovating while staying grounded in the vines, the land, and, yes, the terroir of Valdobbiadene.
I sat down with the brothers to talk about their land, their winery, and their approach to making the world’s beloved Prosecco wines in this prestigious DOCG wine region of northeastern Italy.
I wondered what it’s like to live in a land where sparkling wine is made - if the locals drink Prosecco on special occasions and at aperitivo hour, or if they drink it more often. Carlo’s reply, “I think we drink more Prosecco than water here.” I had an inkling suspicion this might be the case. Then he added, “We use Prosecco like an aperitif, during the meal, after lunch – every occasion is good for drinking Prosecco.”
Carlo and Fabio Sanzovo
When you grow up in the country surrounded by your family’s agricultural business, chances are you got your hands dirty quite early. Each brother recalls lending a hand with the family’s winery by five years of age. Fabio gravitated to the vineyards, while Carlo preferred work in the cantina, or winery. This split held true as they grew older and returned to the family business as adults. Carlo helped make wine at other wineries before returning to Sanzovo winery at age 23. Fabio went off to study Enology first, then returned to the viticulture side of the business at about the same age. Though they specialize, both say they help on the other side of the business and fill in when necessary.
At the Sanvozo family estate in Valdobbiadene.
Sanzovo wines began with their grandfather, Mansueto who grew grapes on their land above Bigolino, a small town just over two kilometers south-west of Valdobbiadene. Their father, Graziano, took over in the 1990s, and now Carlo and Fabio are at the helm. Innovation has been their key to producing quality wines.
In Mansueto’s era in the 1950s, wines were made in wooden casks. When Graziano arrived, he introduced temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, a big innovation at the time, to control oxidation and maintain freshness. The brothers know they must keep innovating. Some may hesitate to try new things, but Carlo believes, “If we have access to new tools, why not take the opportunity.” One innovation he adopted quickly and relies on daily is his phone app. It allows him mobility to be out in the vineyard or promoting his wines while still having eyes, and fingertip control of tank temperatures and other winery functions. “We are lucky because my father didn’t start this winery himself, so he felt free to let us decide which way was best to go in the future.”
The Land: Valdobbiadene
The brothers, like their winemaking elders across the region, believe this small area between Valdobiaddene and Conegliano is a micro-climatic zone perfectly adapted to producing Glera’s light, floral, fresh, fruited sparkling wines. They explain that it is cool yet sunny, while the hillside slopes capture the sun and funnel breezes that dry the grapes of moisture. In the fall near harvest, extreme diurnal temperature swings develop flavors and character unique to this zone. All result in a Prosecco “Superiore” DOCG with structure, aromatics, and balance you don’t find in most DOC Proseccos found in the plains. For more on Prosecco and the region of Valdobbiadene, check out our article on the topic.
According to Carlo: “Our area is famous for Prosecco because it has found its best climatic zone perfectly suited to the grape and wine. If you want great Chardonnay as a still wine, go to Friuli. If you want Chardonnay in a sparkling form, go to Trento Doc where the climate is even cooler.” But for the best Prosecco, look to Valdobbiadene.
Vero founder, Sheila Donohue, was visiting with the Sanzovo brothers when an unexpected surprise happened in their vineyards!
They give a lot of credit to the region’s argilla soils, calcareous clay with sandstone, explaining their perfect water-holding capacity: “just enough for the vine to access water in drought conditions while it is also well-draining.” That combined with the steep slopes mean the soils are easily and quickly drained of excess water under rainy conditions. Carlo emphasizes that this is just one of the big differences between Valdobbiadene and the much broader two-region Prosecco DOC area.
There, Fabio explains, many vineyards on the plains have stony soils. These soils help flat land vineyards during a rainy season, but during drought there is no water for vines access. (The vine’s ability to access water is vitally important, since in most of Italy’s wine regions, irrigation is prohibited under DOC or DOCG regulations).
Carlo adds, “Some people say Glera lacks structure, but it depends where you grow it.” If you grow it on stony soils, that can be true. But when you plant Glera in the right clay soils such as those in the “Superiore” region of Valdobbiadene, structure shows up as a bit richer body, balanced acidity and a potential for a sense of minerality.
Each microclimate across Valdobbiadene can have its own character. The soils here are an amalgam, changeable with every new hill, and every slope has its own angle to the sun. Carlo: “I think that’s the magic of the small winery. It’s all good Prosecco, it’s all Valdobbiadene, but each with a specific taste.” When each owner grows the same grape but on her/his own small plots of land, each can express their own terroir.
The Sanzovos farm ten small vineyard parcels quite close to each other, totaling about 6 hectares. So you can expect a Sanzovo character to them. But Fabio harvests and Carlo ferments even those 10 vineyards separately. Every vintage they sample each parcel’s wine to identify its unique aromas, flavors, and structure. Only then does Carlo decide how to make the blend. In many years, the grapes off the Col del Balt vineyard produce their best base wine. But in some years, the average vineyard will be the best. Carlo says he can get emotional noticing how different two wines grown so close to each other can express themselves. It’s a discovery that pleases him each vintage in his pursuit of the blend with perfect balance. They are committed to their land and farming sustainably, for which they are certified.
Their Wines
The two wines that Vero imports today are exciting, delicious and fresh. The Sanzovo brothers’ goal for every wine they craft is to achieve a perfect balance for that vintage. They’ve certainly achieved that goal in the two wines I tasted, both just imported for the first time into the United States by Vero.
Fabio and Carlo with the steel tanks used to make their sparkling wines.
Responding to current demand for drier wines, the brothers weren’t afraid to craft a Brut version of Prosecco (most traditional Proseccos were made in the Extra Dry, a touch sweeter style). Their wonderfully balanced Sanzovo Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superior DOCG Brut has a floral nose with flavors of lemon, and a touch of orange peel in perfect balance with soft bubbles, bright acidity and more juicy, citrus flavors.
The second wine offered here is their special Col Fondo, called Sanzovo Codolà – a legacy of their grandfather and tribute to the way bubbles were once traditionally made in the Prosecco region before the advent of the steel tank, when fine frizzante bubbles were made from one fermentation only, with the lees left in the bottle. My bottle of this delicious wine featured an intense floral and honeycomb nose followed by flavors of underripe pineapple and salted lime. It is a fruit-tart treat with juicy smooth bubbles and a very pleasant slightly chalky finish to add extra structure. For more on Col Fondo and Ancestral Method wines, read our previous article.
These aren’t the only two wines from their small plots of land. Carlo and Fabio also produce: a vintage-dated Extra Dry (sweeter) version of Prosecco Valdobbiadene, and a wine called “Vino Bianco Spumante 3Punto4.” This second wine is also 100% Glera, but is made in a lower pressure style. Its name references it’s 3.4 atm’s of pressure, landing somewhere between a full spumante and a frizzante style Prosecco.
The new logo of the Sanzovo brothers, Col del Balt.
What’s New
Early 2022 they will be releasing their version of the DOCG’s newly-allowed style: a fully sparkling Spumante bottled with its lees. They tell me this wine will be the first wine released under the upcoming new Col del Balt label! Keep following Vero so you can find out once Vero imports it in!
The Sanzovo brothers are indeed always innovating to assure their small winery continues to craft wines to their ultimate potential, reflective of the region and their standards. In 2018 they broke ground on a brand-new winery with shiny new tanks (controlled by that new app). And a tasting room will be opening soon. But the brothers aren’t stopping there. The Sanzovo winery name is being re-branded in tribute to the hill by their homestead and winery, which is also the name of their ‘favorite’ vineyard: Col del Balt. The new name, new labels, and tasting room will launch in January 2022.
All new wines produced will have a striking new Col del Balt label with an evocative design. Against a black background, you see curving parallel lines of pale grey. These lines echo the curving vineyard rows across Col del Balt vineyard. You won’t find rows laid out in geometric lines here, as you see in the plains. Here the vine rows follow the curvature of the hills. Another testament and tribute to the beauty, yet challenging nature of growing grapes in Valdobbiadene – a land where it takes heart and soul to commit yourself to the “heroic viticulture” required to produce quality Prosecco from this terroir, from these historic steep green hills.
This article is written by Mary Beth Vierra, founder of Crush Course. She’s a Certified Wine Educator and Italian Wine Scholar.
Try Carlo and Fabio’s Valdobbiadene Sparklers
