Sparkling wine. It’s the drink of celebrations, aperitivi, of pairing with oysters or popcorn or brunch, of any time we want a palate or mood lift. The popularity of sparkling wine in the US continues to grow. Produced round the world or made right here, of the many styles available, the two main production methods we know best are “The Champagne Method” and “The Charmat Method.” 

But over the last several years there’s been a quiet fizzy buzz about a sparkling style born of a third production-method with which you may be less familiar. You may have heard their names though– pét-nat, méthode ancestrale, Col Fondo, and Sui Lieviti to list a few. That quiet buzz has turned much more vocal as their popularity has rocketed over the last several years. The new sparkling darlings have captured the fascination of both the sommelier set and the younger generation wine drinker, each looking for something unique, something personal - products, foods, and wines that feel natural, artisanal, hands-off, and somehow “new.” 

Welcome to the world of “ancestral method” sparkling wine, and Vino Col Fondo – wine bottled with the lees.

What’s Old is New Again

Only in the last 500 years has sparkling wine been made with intention. The versions with which we are most familiar – Traditional (Champagne, Crémant or Franciacorta) and Charmat (Prosecco, Lambrusco) are both produced in a manner quite modern with respect to the long arc of winemaking history – made by controlling the natural fermentation process, then inducing a second fermentation to create bubbles. Both methods are decedents of simpler regional sparkling wines once produced without much of a “process” to speak of.  You can learn more about the main styles and methods of sparkling wine production in our previous article, The Buzz About Bubbles.

Almost 200 years before the arrival of Méthode Champenoise (aka, the Traditional Method, supposedly “invented” by Dom Pérignon), documentation shows fizzy wines were being enjoyed in 1531 around Limoux, a village in the Languedoc. But wine has been around even longer, for millennia. Archaeologists trace the first known wine to Georgia in 6,000BC, while a first mention of fizzy wine was recorded around 20 AD, by Pliny the Elder. So, it’s hard to claim that sparkling wine was really “invented” or even “discovered,” let alone in one place. Fizzy surprises probably appeared earlier, regularly, and all over the world once humans thought to put wine in sealed vessels for over-winter storage.

What is An Ancestral Method?

Sparkles are the result of a natural process when cold winter temperatures arrive early, causing yeasts in fermenting wine to go dormant. Appearing to be finished, farmers stoppered and stored the wine. When spring arrived, warming air woke the yeasts which began consuming the remaining sugar again. With nowhere for the carbon dioxide to go, ‘voila’… it sparkles!  If the vessels (and in later centuries, bottles) didn’t explode from the pressure, the resulting wines were lightly fizzy, cloudy from the dead yeasty sediment, dry because the fermentation had completed, a bit bready, and most likely a little funky.

The wine wasn’t perfect by today’s standard, probably tasted quite rustic, and may not have been very stable. Yet the home winemaker (aka the farmer) most surely drank it and likely shared or traded it with neighbors.  It stands to reason that sparkles and fizz “came with the territory” in many vintages experiencing an early cold snap. Say hello to the common ancestral “method” for making bubbles, wanted or not.

What is Pét-Nat? 

Pét-nat is an abbreviation of Pétillant Naturale (naturally fizzy), a French term for sparkling wines purposefully created in the ancestral method by putting a partially fermented wine in the bottle and corking it in order to make light bubbles. It was in the 1990s that winemakers in the Loire valley intentionally set out to create sparkling wines in this simpler style using quicker, less expensive processes than the traditional method wines they were also making (no racking, no riddling). As in the ancient traditions of winemaking, the bubbles are created during the first fermentation, without complicated steps, technology, nor equipment: the lees remain in the bottle, are (usually) never disgorged, and since only the consumer opens the bottle, these wines see no dosage to sweeten the finished wine. The results are lightly fizzy (pétillant), often cloudy, dry (often brut nature), tart, a little funky and textural on the palate with bready or herbaceous notes from the lees. Some describe it as cider-like. Because of the ongoing autolysis in the bottle, each bottle is unique and ever evolving. The wine you taste today may show differently a few weeks from now. This simple natural fizzy wine with its variability and uniqueness took a corner of the wine world by storm.

So What is Col Fondo?

Let’s move to Italy. Col Fondo translates literally to “with the bottom” are frizzante wines with a lees sediment that has fallen to the bottom of the bottle. They are ancestrale (or ancestral) method wines from Italy. These are Italian sparklers bottled with their lees, not disgorged, and with no dosage added. Col Fondo wines are commonly found in Prosecco and Lambrusco: two types of wine made in Italy’s north, more known for their refreshing, fruity and sometimes floral sparkling wines produced in pressurized tanks. 

“Vino col fondo,” “Metodo Ancestrale,” or “Sui Lieviti” (on their lees) are other ways to indicate sparkling wines on the lees. The choice to make this style today is a heartfelt decision to honor the sparkling winemaking heritage born of their regions, the methods of their forefathers, before the autoclave came on the scene, allowing for higher production, cleaner, fruitier wines, but pushing the heritage style aside.

Italian Methods

Both Prosecco and Lambrusco vino col fondos are variations on the ancestral theme. Some producers stick with the first fermentation method, chilling the original wine to halt its fermentation long enough to separate it of excess lees, then bottle it along with some of the unfermented must.

Others might choose to inch a tiny bit closer to the classic “Champagne” method, fermenting the wine to complete dryness in tank; then starting a second fermentation in bottle by adding a bit of the still-sweet must (not sugar) from that ferment.

So, ta da! Prosecco and Lambrusco, the wines we know for their bubbles “made in tank,” do indeed produce a small quantity of sparklers made at least partially “in the bottle.” But that’s where the comparison to the Traditional Method ends. These “rifermentazione in bottiglia” or “sui lieviti” wines keep the “fondo” in the bottle, don’t disgorge and thus, don’t add a dosage.

The resulting wines are most often frizzante (semi-sparkling at less than 2.5 atm pressure), quite dry, showcasing the tart end of their Glera (the Prosecco grape) or Lambrusco fruit spectrum, sometimes with salinity, and herbaceous or earthy notes.  The lees contribute added aromatics, flavors and mouthfeel, so most ancestral method wines will have more depth of character and structure than their “cleaner” cousins made in the autoclave.  Expect that interesting bottle variation and evolution of character and flavor over time.

Italian Heritage

Thanks to renewed interest, these “farm” wines aren’t relegated to family and friend consumption.  The demand for the local, tart, “bottled on the lees” Italian wines is growing both domestically and internationally and are slowly becoming more available, if you know where to look. 

What you’ll find in regions with a long history of sparkling wine like Emilia Romagna (Lambrusco) and Trieste/Valdobbiadene (Prosecco) is craft winemaking with care. You can learn more about Lambrusco and Prosecco in previous articles. In fact, “Col Fondo” wines are not an afterthought or quick easy wine. They are a purposeful decision and purposeful winemaking. Though the process may seem simple, the bottled unfermented yeasts are living and changing. To prevent wayward flavors or too much ‘funk,’ these artisans craft their wines with great care and attention to assure you receive the expected delight of ancestral bottle variation, but with vibrancy, fruit qualities that are alive, evocative character, while being stable, clean, and long lived.

Ancestral method wines mean something a little different to each region paying tribute to its own customs and local roots. But all share a nostalgia for simpler times, re-discovery of a truly artisanal craft, and wines with life from their “fondo.”

In Italy’s oldest sparkling wine regions, winemakers are paying homage to their past by recreating part of it, preserving it, for themselves and for you. 

How to Serve Col Fondo wine?

In Italy, lower pressure frizzante style wines don’t need a cage. They are bottled with either a crown cap (like beer) or a cork stopper tied down with a simple spago, or string. After clipping the string, open with your usual wine key.

Chill the wine before serving.  Serve in a tulip glass to allow the aromatics to bloom while maintaining the frizzante bubbles.

How to pour it?  It depends if you want the full lees experience, or you want a limpid, clarified wine. When stored upright, the lees will be at the bottle’s base (fondo). If you want the lees, twirl the bottle a couple of times before pouring. This will jolt the sediment to mix into the wine. If you want a clarified glass, decanting is an option, but not necessary. Just pour, paying attention as you near the end of the bottle where the sediment will want to follow. Here’s a tip: hyper-chill the base of the bottle (set in an ice bucket for 15 minutes). This thickens the sediment, making it slower to pour out.

Food pairings

Because most Col Fondo and ancestral wines are quite dry with low alcohol, and high acidity, pair them with foods where you’d like to add a tart accent, with salty foods, or when you seek a mouth-cleansing balance to richness.  

In general:

For Proseccos Col Fondo, try with oysters on the half-shell, sauteed white fish, creamy pastas and risottos, antipasti baked in flaky pastry, salty potato chips and fresh cheeses like burrata. These wines can also be fabulous with the difficult-to-pair-salads with vinaigrette. One of our favorite recipes is a Pumpkin Risotto (recipe here) to pair with Prosecco.

For Lambrusco Col Fondo with its berry flavors and potential for deeper, rustic aromas, try with artisanal salumi, sausages, smoked trout, mushroom pasta or risotto, salted nuts, and aged cheeses. Try this Lambrusco Col Fondo it with this traditional sausage and rice dish from Mantua, Italy.

Let’s Explore Some Wines

We invite you to begin (or continue) your exploration of the multitude of ancestral method sparkling styles by looking first to northern Italy. We offer two beautiful family-crafted gems hand-selected and imported for you, right here from Vero: one from Prosecco, and one from Lambrusco.

Col Del Balt | Sanzovo | Codolà | Valdobbiadene, Italy | A Pet Nat style Prosecco

Before the 'modern era' of Proseccos made in the Charmat method, Prosecco was made in the ancestral method, like this wine: fermentation is finished in the bottle, not disgorged and no sugar added. This wine made of 100% Glera, stays “Col Fondo” – with its lees in the bottle.

Lemon yellow and slightly hazy from the lees, the nose is greeted with a bouquet of white flowers and honeycomb. The foamy smooth bubbles give way to juicy-tart flavors of underripe pineapple, and salted lime. The dry palate (0 residual sugar) had nice balanced contrasts of juicy tart fruit, creamy weight, a slight chalky mouthfeel, washed with a finish of cleansing juicy-fruit acidity.  Highly quaffable; truly delicious. 

We were live with Carlo and Fabio Sanzovo from their cantina in Valdobbiadene. You can watch the video on our Facebook. We tasted and learned more about this wine and their DOCG Brut.  Learn more here, and watch the video to taste along.

Bugno Martino | Essentia “Rifermentazione in Bottiglia” Ancestral Method | Italy

This is how Lambrusco wine was made in the province of Mantua before the autoclave/Charmat method - refermented in the bottle, from organic Lambrusco grapes. This wine is deep opaque garnet with a lighter garnet rim. Aromas are complex with tobacco, cinnamon, cherry, smoked meat and a faint note of salty seaweed. The palate is dry with light bubbles bringing in pomegranate, plum pit and tart cranberry to complete the dry finish.  This wine is exotic and earthy.

This article is written by Mary Beth Vierra, founder of Crush Course. She’s a Certified Wine Educator and Italian Wine Scholar.

Try Natural Pet Nat and Ancestral Method Wines… in Both Red and White!