Costadilà Prosecco

Costadilà Prosecco

I’m a shallow bastard…. I could stare at this bottle for hours….pretty pathetic I know, but it appeals to the aesthete, label shopping, inner design monkey in me….it’s minimalist, dead sexy packaging from the snazzy neck-tag down to the proprietary bottle with the Costadilà stamp hidden away in the punt…it’s a good looking bit of kit.

If the average Joe-punter was to grab a bottle of this…..probably initially seduced by its come-hither packaging…out of the fridge at his/her local boozatorium….they would quickly jump back …..staring at the fridge aghast spluttering  to no-one in particular…..”it’s got floaty bits in it…look here…..and it’s cloudy….hurmummphhhh”.

That is because it is a Prosecco colfòndo my friends….and Prosecco colfòndo…..in the words of Mugato is “so hot right now”.

The colfòndo crew are a group of like-minded of winemakers who produce Prosecco aged on its lees…..all cloudy, natural and sexy….providing a perfect counterpoint to the delicious, though sometimes a bit estery, Sparkling wines from the hills around Treviso.

Another recent change in Proseccoland is the grape variety….in the past it was called, funnily enough….Prosecco…but since 2009 the variety now goes by the name of “Glera”…..this has to do with Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene, Prosecco di Conegliano and Prosecco di Valdbbiandene having their DOC status upgraded to DOCG in 2009. It basically stops any complications that may arise from other sparkling wines being produced from a Prosecco grape from outside the DOCG region.

The estate is run using organic principals and consists parcels of old vines in the Le Serre a Miane hills…..the average vine-age is 50 years old, which lie on clay & limestone soils, around 200-300m ASL.

A lot of Prosecco you see around the traps is produced using the charmat method, which is a forced, in-tank, second fermentation before bottling….the Costadilà is produced using the tradition method with the second ferment taking place in the bottle. The grapes are picked by hand, de-stemmed and spend a brief time on skins before the natural yeasts kick the fermentation off. It spends 5 months on lees before a natural refermentation in bottle…..I believe some of the grapes are dried Amarone style and the pressed juice added back in as the liquor to kick off this process.

If you pick up a bottle and take a look at it you’ll see all manner of sediment and stuff floating around…..pour it out and it sit’s pale yellow in the glass, cloudy with an active mousse…..it looks akin to a wheat beer I guess.

It shows aromas of pithy grapefruit, apple blossom, and citrus fruits with intruiging hints of lanolin and wet wool, soft spice, lemon gelato, sea-spray and a waft of something almost meaty…..like a light chicken stock aroma.

On the palate it is initially lean enough to startle with pithy citrus fruits….lemon and grapefruit with a touch of sapid saltiness and a lemon-sherbet like intensity. It’s quite phenolic in the mouth and super leesy….almost a touch raw…I don’t know if you’ve tried a “green” beer….one that is still fermenting…..well it’s that sort of rawness….not unpleasant….just slightly rustic.

Lot’s of minerality present also with hints of crunchy green apples, stone and a pithy bitterness…..lively bubbles and a sea-spray like waft on the finish complete the wine….one person at the table commented that it tasted like “a sparkling Gravner” ….. it’s a captivating, intriguing style and one that cries out for food….something like pork belly would be the ticket.

Price: $45 – Closure: Crown Seal – Alcohol: 11.5% – Source: Cellar

It looks pretty fruity and weird but has some funky shit going on…..kind of like this bloke.

A bit fruity lookin.....