Visiting Sandro Bottega

There is a world to explore when it comes to bubbles. From very chic and pricey to simple and much more affordable. Prosecco, also known as the 'poor man's champagne' falls into the latter category, but even there the differences are great.
Text and image: Château-Petri

On the occasion of the launch of a new cuvée, the Super Premium Prosecco of the house Bottega, WINELIFE meets Sandro Bottega at the beautifully styled Andaz Hotel on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam. A perfect location for the glamorous Bottega range, recognisable from afar by a golden sheen. It is true that the packaging says nothing about the content, but even that is of a very different order from a 'normal' prosecco. These wines are single vineyard and vintage. That means the grapes come from one harvest from a very special vineyard, and from one vintage. Count the extra brut dosage, or lower sugar content, and you have wines that are more refined, complex and gourmet than any prosecco.

Mountaineers

'It's all about terroir' is Sandro's message. And indeed his grapes are in the very best spot in Valdobbiadene. In this sub-appellation of Treviso you almost need mountaineering skills to pick the bunches by hand. This is in stark contrast to the machine harvesting of glera grapes in the plains outside Treviso. The yields, fruit concentration and labour costs are of a very different order.

Second fermentation in the tank

The preconceptions about Prosecco as ''poor man's champagne' also have to do with the production method. This is because the bubbles in the juice are created by a second fermentation in the tank, unlike the traditional method, the traditional method of champagne with a second fermentation in the bottle. This is known as the metodo Martinotti, after the Italian who made this method of production possible on a large scale. In cheap proseccos, contact with the lees is avoided during this process to preserve fruit character and save costs. At Bottega, on the contrary, they look for complexity in the wine. This is why they use tanks - placed horizontally - as large bottles. In these, the juice lies aged on the lees for four to 12 months. Once bottled, the wine will still deepen in flavour. It has the time for that; the storage potential is 10 to 20 years in bottle.