Zanotto

Roots in Conegliano

Riccardo Zanotto was born in Conegliano in 1965, in the heart of the Prosecco DOCG hills. His personal and professional outlook developed from this local background, the traditions of the Veneto countryside and a desire to recover a more direct relationship between wine, place and everyday conviviality.

The family’s viticultural base is in Tarzo, within Conegliano Valdobbiadene. The family vineyards include a site identified as I Ciliegi, while the locality of Reseretta is associated with the Glera vineyards used for the estate’s three Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG wines. These vines grow at 370 metres above sea level and are managed by Riccardo Zanotto.

The beginning of the Col Fondo project

More than fifteen years ago, Zanotto began his wine project with Zanotto Col Fondo, a Glera-based, naturally sparkling wine refermented in bottle on its lees. It became the centre of his production and the clearest expression of his preference for simplicity, natural sediment and the agricultural memory of Veneto.

At the time, wines of this kind were commonly described as sur lie or sui lieviti. Zanotto and other producers deliberately recovered and promoted the Veneto expression col fondo, referring to the deposit of yeast retained in the bottle. Zanotto Col Fondo was presented as one of the early wines of this renewed movement.

Development of Officina Vinicola

The project developed as Officina Vinicola, conceived by Zanotto as a workshop in which research and tradition meet. His role is that of an artisan selector: he works from the family vineyards in Tarzo and selects additional grapes from partner winegrowers in other suitable areas. An expert oenologist collaborates with him in translating the character of the different origins into finished wines.

The range evolved around two complementary production approaches. The first preserves the rural tradition of unfiltered wines refermented in bottle and left on their lees. The second uses the Martinotti–Charmat method to produce sparkling and semi-sparkling wines with an emphasis on fresh varietal character, clean fruit and precise bubbles.

The Col Fondo family expanded beyond its original Glera wine to include white, red, rosé and skin-contact expressions. The Martinotti range grew to encompass three Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG wines from the family’s Glera vineyards, Prosecco DOC Treviso wines, two Art Collection blends and two informal frizzante wines.

Art and other territorial projects

Zanotto’s interest in art led to collaborations with Fabio Baggio, known as Bajo. Bajo’s work appears on labels including Brut Bajo and the Zanotto Art Collection, connecting visual art with the identity of the sparkling-wine range.

The same exploratory approach later extended beyond wine. Birra Campea was developed as an unfiltered, unpasteurised craft beer made in a laboratory in the village of Campea, in the Colli Trevigiani. Gin Ferro 7 was created with seven Italian botanicals; its concept links a journey from northern to southern Italy with Zanotto’s interest in golf and his search for balance.

Riccardo Zanotto manages the family vineyards in Tarzo and selects additional grapes in collaboration with partner winegrowers. Selection is based on the capacity of the grapes and vineyard origins to express their individual character.

Soil management prioritises biodiversity and grape quality. The working philosophy follows the rhythms of the earth and lunar phases, while the family Glera vineyard at 370 metres is tended with close attention. Partner growers are chosen for values compatible with this approach and for vineyards capable of supplying fruit with a clear relationship to its origin.

Two production approaches

Officina Vinicola is organised around two complementary sparkling-wine methods: unfiltered Col Fondo wines refermented in bottle and sparkling or semi-sparkling wines made by the Martinotti–Charmat method.

Col Fondo

The Col Fondo wines follow an old rural approach. After the base wine is made, refermentation occurs spontaneously in the bottle with native yeasts. The wine is neither filtered nor disgorged, so the spent yeast forms a living deposit that remains in the bottle and continues to influence its evolution. The traditional closure is a crown cap.

For the original Glera-based expression, bottling and refermentation take place once a year in spring, around Easter, during the waxing moon. The wine develops for 60–90 days after bottling before it is ready to drink. It may be poured clear, leaving the sediment undisturbed, or gently mixed with its lees for a cloudier and more textural presentation.

The wider Col Fondo family applies bottle refermentation to white, red, rosé and skin-contact wines. Its defining technical features are retained lees, the absence of filtration and a deliberately direct expression of fruit and fermentation.

Martinotti–Charmat

The Martinotti–Charmat wines undergo secondary fermentation in temperature- and pressure-controlled stainless-steel autoclaves. This method is used to preserve aromatic integrity, fruit clarity and varietal freshness while producing fine bubbles. The three Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG wines are made from pure Glera, with secondary fermentation in autoclave lasting 90–100 days.

The same method underpins the Prosecco DOC Treviso, Art Collection and frizzante ranges. The frizzante wines remain at or below 2.5 bar, distinguishing their gentler pressure from fully sparkling wines.

Riccardo Zanotto describes Officina Vinicola as a workshop where research meets tradition and defines his own role as that of an artisan selector or “tailor of taste,” rather than simply a producer. His aim is for each bottle to carry the identity of a place, a cultural inheritance and the character of its origin.

His philosophy combines two apparently different ideas. The Martinotti–Charmat wines pursue contemporary precision, clarity of fruit and technical rigour; the Col Fondo wines preserve agricultural memory through slow rhythms, bottle refermentation, natural sediment and the recovery of older rural practices.

Zanotto places simplicity and naturalness at the centre of the Col Fondo project. He seeks wines that remain lively, direct and recognisably connected to their raw material rather than standardised expressions. Attention to biodiversity, the rhythms of nature, lunar phases and patient cellar work supports that goal.

The social model is the osteria: wine as an honest, everyday pleasure shared among friends rather than an experience dominated by technical formalism. Quality, flavour, respect for the past and close attention to detail are intended to coexist with this informality.

Across the wider range, Zanotto treats winemaking as storytelling. Selecting grapes, guiding fermentations and connecting different Italian places are presented as ways of preserving traditions while giving each origin its own voice.