Bele Casel are leading the way in Prosecco’s Col Fondo movement, making bone dry, crisp fresh wines that are re-fermented in bottle leading to a deliberately cloudy wine with gentle effervescence.
How does the col fondo method differ from regular prosecco, traditional method and ancestral method?
Most prosecco is made by the tank method, a still wine is refermented in a pressurised tank before being bottled under pressure.
Traditional method (eg champagne) is made with a secondary fermentation taking place in bottle followed by disgorgement to remove sediment.
Ancestral method (often now called petillant naturel or ‘pet-nat’) are young wines bottled before the natural fermentation is complete.
The col fondo method meaning ‘with its bottom’ is a base wine bottled with lees, causing a re-fermenting in bottle but without disgorgement to remove sediment. In fact Bele Casel advocate inverting the bottle before opening to evenly disburse the lees. This results in a deliberately cloudy wine with crisp flavour and a gentle effervescence.
