History
Roots predating the modern estate
The historical roots of Vigneto Giardino extend to at least 1700. Before acquiring it, Abele Adami was already a winegrower in Santo Stefano di Valdobbiadene. The family was locally known by the nickname I Casei, while Abele himself was called “Casel.”
1920: Abele Adami and Vigneto Giardino
In 1920, after the destruction caused by the First World War, Abele purchased a naturally amphitheatre-shaped vineyard from Conte Balbi Valier. The property offered Abele and his children an opportunity to begin again. He decided to keep its grapes separate from those of the family's other vineyards, following the approach he had already adopted for Cartizze.
This parcel-based decision led to two wines identified by individual vineyard: Riva Giardino Asciutto and Riva Cartizze Asciutto. They are presented within the family history as probably the first single-vineyard wines of Valdobbiadene. Vigneto Giardino later passed to Adriano “Jano Casel” Adami, Abele's thirteenth and youngest child.
1933: public debut and the Asciutto identity
In August 1933, Riva Giardino Asciutto was exhibited at the first Mostra dei Vini Tipici d’Italia in Siena. The year also marks the beginning of Asciutto as Adami's defining approach: a balance of softness and acidity intended to leave the palate clean and dry. That balance is linked to gentle, but deliberately not excessively soft, grape pressing.
The next generations and international expansion
Successive generations pursued formal study and a more rigorous oenological profession. In the early 1980s, Armando and Franco Adami brought the family's work to a broader European audience, followed soon afterward by expansion overseas. Adami's presence ultimately reached four continents.
The family continued to make wines from both its own vineyards and fruit supplied by long-standing partner growers. Its parcel-based approach developed into the separate vinification of approximately 34 vineyards or micro-areas. Most of these components are assembled in different combinations, while Vigneto Giardino and Col Credas emerged as complete single-vineyard expressions in their own right.
2009 onward: conserving vineyard material
Beginning in 2009, approximately 2,000 cuttings have been selected from Vigneto Giardino each year and used for new plantings elsewhere on the hill. The programme preserves and propagates material from the historic vineyard.
Fourth generation
The fourth generation—Fabrizio, Claudio and Cristina Adami—is active in the family business. Their work continues a family history spanning more than a century from Abele's 1920 purchase, while the public Adami identity retains 1933 as its founding date.
Sorapiana and the RPS project
In April 2024, Adami opened Sorapiana, a restored tasting room and wine shop at Via Soprapiana 36, within historic Vigneto Giardino and two minutes by car from the winery. The project also envisaged three guest rooms.
In September 2025, Adami carried out the tirage for RPS “Uno”, a project designed around a recent secondary fermentation of mature base wines. Released in June 2026, it combined 70% of the 2020 harvest, matured for 60 months on its lees, with 30% of the 2023 harvest, matured for 24 months. The first edition comprised 4,201 bottles.
Terroir
Conegliano-Valdobbiadene hills
Adami lives and works in Conegliano-Valdobbiadene, a historic Prosecco zone comprising 15 communes in the Province of Treviso. Its sequence of ridges and rolling hills forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage landscape.
The geological complex originated as seabed uplifted through the interaction of the African and European tectonic plates. The Piave glacier and its lateral branches subsequently reshaped part of the hills and deposited conglomerates containing rock, clay and iron-bearing material. In areas untouched by glaciation, former seabed formations predominate, producing dry, shallow soils of marl and sandstone.
This geology combines with variations in elevation and solar exposure to create numerous meso- and microclimates. The growing environment is temperate, with cold winters and warm but non-humid summers. In the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene hills, average annual precipitation is approximately 1,250 mm, peaking in June and November and reaching its lowest levels in January and August.
Cartizze and the Rive
Cartizze is a pentagon-shaped, 107-hectare area within Valdobbiadene. Its long-recognised individual character led local producers to establish a dedicated production code in 1969. Its vineyards occupy often extremely steep, predominantly south-facing hills between Saccol, San Pietro di Barbozza and Santo Stefano. Soils vary and include morainic and clay material together with relatively infertile, dry, shallow sandstone, particularly at higher elevations.
The 43 recognised Rive identify steep or extremely steep hillside microzones. The designation ties the grapes to a precise commune or village, requires hand harvesting and identifies the harvest year. Adami's two named Rive are Vigneto Giardino in Rive di Colbertaldo and Col Credas in Rive di Farra di Soligo.
Lower Treviso zone
Fruit for the Prosecco DOC Treviso range comes from the Province of Treviso at approximately 70–150 metres. The landscape includes alluvial plains and terraces at the foot of the hills. Soils are diverse, often based on calcareous clay, and can be infertile, dry and shallow at higher points. Average rainfall is approximately 1,100 mm, again with June and November maxima and January and August minima.
Winemaking
Adami's vineyard programme is certified through SQNPI, Italy's National Quality System for Integrated Production, covering low-impact cultivation and the careful use of plant-protection measures.
Chemical weed control has been abandoned, and glyphosate has not been used for many years. Instead, the winery manages permanent vegetation and sows selected combinations of grasses and other plants according to each vineyard's needs. These cover crops help fix atmospheric nitrogen, improve the soil, reduce fertiliser requirements and lower the vineyard carbon footprint.
Pruning, training and inter-row management are treated as connected tools for maintaining vine health, fruit integrity and the surrounding landscape. Adami seeks not merely to preserve the resulting ecosystem—whose old vines include plants that lived through the World Wars—but to help it develop alongside the other plant species present.
QUIDO weather-monitoring technology is used in the vineyards to guide treatments and restrict irrigation to periods of actual need. Water recovered from winery operations is returned to the vineyards, where its naturally occurring organic matter benefits the soil.
The steepest Rive demand heroic manual work. Vigneto Giardino and Col Credas require approximately 1,000 working hours per hectare annually, compared with approximately 350 hours per hectare for the lower-lying Garbèl sources. Grapes for Rive wines are harvested exclusively by hand and vinified by their individual origin.
Parcel separation and blending
Grapes from different zones are vinified separately to preserve the identity of each origin. Approximately 34 vineyards or micro-areas produce distinct base wines each year. These components may then be assembled in different combinations for the classic Bosco di Gica and Dei Casel expressions, while Vigneto Giardino and Col Credas remain individual vineyard selections.
Pressing and primary fermentation
The general process begins with pneumatic pressing, followed by static settling of the must. Fermentation takes place at a controlled 17–19°C with selected yeasts. The resulting base wines mature on fine lees in steel: at least three months for several classic blends and Cartizze, and at least six months for Vigneto Giardino, Col Credas and Col Fondo.
Adami associates its Asciutto balance with pressing that is gentle but not excessively soft, seeking equilibrium between softness and acidity and a clean, dry finish.
Secondary fermentation
For the Italian or Martinotti method, secondary fermentation takes place in pressure-resistant steel tanks at 15–17°C. Adami conducts approximately 90 separate secondary fermentations during the year, using this frequency to preserve finesse, cleanliness, vitality and freshness across different components and bottlings. The sparkling wines are cold-stabilised at −4°C.
Only grape-derived sugar is used for dosage, creating the Brut Nature, Extra Brut, Brut, Extra Dry and Dry styles.
Bottle-fermented tradition
Col Fondo follows a separate historical method. The final-picked, lower-acidity grapes are pressed and fermented before at least six months on fine lees in steel. Secondary fermentation then occurs in bottle in spring, in a dark room at 16–17°C. There is no disgorgement, so the yeasts remain as sediment at the bottom of the bottle, continuing to shape the wine over time.
Extended maturation before recent secondary fermentation
RPS “Uno” applies a different time sequence while remaining within the Martinotti method. Base wines were matured for years on their lees before sparkling fermentation. The September 2025 tirage combined 70% 2020 wine aged 60 months on lees with 30% 2023 wine aged 24 months, bringing fresh effervescence to mature base material.
Philosophy
Adami places the relationship among vine, soil, climate and people at the centre of its work. Differences between vineyards—and even between two sides of the same hill—are treated as meaningful distinctions to be understood and retained.
The primary objective is to interpret the nuances supplied by each place through informed decisions from vine growth to bottling. Separate vinification is therefore essential: fruit from different origins is kept apart so that the identity of each site can remain intact before any blending decision.
The family describes its classic style through approximately 34 annual “imprints,” individual vineyard or micro-area expressions assembled into a persistent, fine and fresh whole. A vineyard is bottled on its own when its fruit and must show sufficient breadth, completeness and balance without support from other components; Vigneto Giardino and Col Credas are the two examples identified across four generations.
Family, authenticity and substance over form guide the business culture. Relationships are intended to be simple, professional and humane, with responsibility extending to employees, consumers, growers, the environment and the surrounding community.
Environmental responsibility is framed as an obligation to future generations. The aim is to reduce the carbon footprint while preserving the integrity of the Alta Marca Trevigiana landscape through a measured combination of experience, science and technology.