Storia
Medieval roots and the 1528 record
The Salatin family's connection with Cordignano reaches back to the Middle Ages. Archival and genealogical research identifies ancestors who participated in local life as parish priests, notaries and agricultural landowners.
A limestone coat of arms dated 1528 records the family's iuspatronato over the parish church of Cordignano, then known as Ecclesia Sancti Cassiani de Misco. This right of patronage was an ecclesiastical privilege associated with noble families of high social standing. The dated stone is the documentary emblem of a family presence extending over more than five centuries; it records the family's local roots rather than the beginning of the commercial winery.
Establishment of the wine business in 1947
The winemaking business began in 1947, founded by the brothers Antonio Salatin and Ercole Salatin. The family associates its work with a landscape that had also been appreciated by the Doges of the Republic of Venice and where vine cultivation around the foot of Cansiglio can be traced to at least the fifteenth century.
The second and third generations
The founders' sons and grandchildren subsequently continued the business. Salatin is now managed by the family's third generation, which combines inherited knowledge with modern winery technology. The estate has grown to 75 hectares, most of them under vine, distributed among the Prosecco hills, the Grave del Friuli area and the Venezia DOC zone.
Organic project from 2017
In 2017, Salatin began producing organic wines and created a collection centred on organic and unfiltered expressions. The project joined vineyard practices with broader objectives concerning environmental protection, energy efficiency, reduced consumption and recycling.
The 2020 harvest and Unico
The 2020 harvest produced the first Unico Verdiso Spumante Brut Nature Millesimato Biologico. It joined Carattere and Sincero in the organic collection, extending a project conceived to represent the local territory through organic farming and lower-intervention production choices.
Terroir
Salatin's 75 hectares occupy hilly country with a long tradition of viticulture. Most of the estate is planted with vines distributed through three principal areas: the Prosecco hills, including the UNESCO-listed Conegliano Valdobbiadene landscape; Grave del Friuli; and the Venezia DOC zone.
The Cordignano vineyards are influenced by the uplands of the Cansiglio plateau. Cansiglio was historically known as the bosco da reme, a forest from which the Venetians obtained timber for ships. Its slopes shape the estate's microclimate: cool breezes descend from the forest during hot summer evenings and ventilate the vine rows, while in winter the mountains shelter the vineyards from night frost and excessively low temperatures. The resulting day-to-night temperature variation is a defining feature of the growing environment.
At the foot of Cansiglio, the Le Conche area has supported vines since the fifteenth century. Its name derives from the area's distinctive landform.
The estate also works with contrasting production zones represented across its range: high hillside and other hilly sites for Glera-based wines, lower hills with deep, heavy clay soils of morainic origin, lighter silty-clay soils of varying depth in the Prosecco DOC hills, and clay-limestone soils containing gravel in Grave del Friuli.
Vinificazione
Environmental management begins in the vineyards and other cultivated areas. Salatin follows the sustainable-agriculture protocol shared by Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG, and every grape lot is certified either through SQNPI — the National Integrated Production Quality System — or as organic.
Biodiversity is supported through 21 hectares planted with six autochthonous grape varieties. Within this area, Salatin highlights 5 hectares of rare varieties, including Verdiso and Boschera. The organic programme began in 2017 and treats vineyard work as the foundation of a broader approach encompassing environmental protection, energy conservation, careful use of resources and recycling.
Harvest decisions are based on the relationship between sugar, acidity, aromatic maturity, climate and the individual variety's ripening cycle. The reproductive season is monitored from February to September, with attention to weather, humidity, soil conditions, irrigation and nutrient availability. Experience and observation guide the response to seasons marked by excessive rain, drought, snow or hail.
Harvest normally occupies the family from mid-August to mid-September. Grapes are selected and picked strictly by hand. The best bunches are placed in wooden boxes, loaded onto trailers and taken onward by tractor. Picking is both a team operation and a family ritual: younger family members participate and learn to distinguish varieties, aromas, flavours and stages of maturity.
Salatin combines inherited winemaking knowledge with modern cellar technology and close control of each production stage.
Grapes are selected by hand at harvest, with picking timed to balance sugar, acidity, aromatic development, climatic conditions and the ripening rhythm of each variety.
For the sparkling-wine range, secondary fermentation takes place in pressurised tanks using the Martinotti, or Charmat, method. Fermentation proceeds at low temperature with selected yeasts. The range includes both conventional Charmat wines and longer tank maturation: the organic Unico project starts sparkling production directly from must in a single fermentation and uses extended maturation on the lees in autoclave, placing it within the Charmat Lungo approach.
White and sparkling bases are produced without skin contact and with gentle pressing. Primary fermentation is temperature-controlled and uses selected yeasts. Red-wine production includes crushing and destemming, cold maceration where appropriate, fermentation on the skins and completion of fermentation in steel after racking. Young varietal reds mature in steel, while selected red blends are matured in oak barrels.
The organic collection also includes an unfiltered, bottle-refermented Prosecco with natural yeast sediment. Its light haze comes from the retained yeasts, which support longevity and permit the absence of free sulphur dioxide in that expression.
Filosofia
Salatin defines its approach through paired values: tradition and innovation, technology and environmental responsibility. Family knowledge is to be carried from one generation to the next with respect and humility, while useful innovations are integrated without overturning the inherited character of the work.
The third generation places detailed attention to winemaking alongside respect for vine cultivation. Quality begins in the vineyard, where good agricultural practice is understood as a way of returning value to the land.
The organic collection expresses the ideas of being Unico, Sincero and showing Carattere. Its purpose is to interpret the hills through organic wines while aligning vineyard and cellar decisions with energy saving, restrained consumption and recycling. Across the wider range, Salatin seeks to retain the climatic, morphological and agricultural identity of each production area and grape variety rather than impose a uniform style.