On the Prosecco hills tasting Perlage wines

On July 18th I joined Valentina of Around & About Treviso and other bloggers for a blog tour in the Prosecco hills near Treviso. The aim was discovering the secrets of vegan and organic wine at a local Winery that celebrates this year its 30th anniversary: Perlage Wines.

The Prosecco hills and Perlage Wines blogtour

We met with Jessica (who accompanied us for the whole tour) in Piazza Giovanni Battista Cima in Conegliano, a lovely little town full of interesting landmarks. I intend to go back there soon to visit Conegliano in a more proper way.

Pieve di San Pietro

After a short walk and a coffee break we went by car to see the nice and small Pieve di San Pietro in Feletto (XII cen) with XII – XV cen frescoes and a lovely panorama on the surrounding Prosecco hills. To go uphill my small car had to struggle with herself (yes, she’s a she, her name is Penelope). The church was set up for a wedding so we found white flowers and a bunch of early guests all dressed up (in comparison we all looked like fools. They were all suits and ties and pretty long dresses. We were all shorts and sandals and they looked us like “Hey, go away and don’t even think of spoiling our beautiful chic wedding!).

Molinetto della Croda

The third stop-over was at the Molinetto della Croda (XVII century) in Refrontolo. There are works still going on to fix the river and the surrounding ground the after the 2014 tragic flooding. It is a little Mill with a little waterfall on its side. It is indeed romantic, as you can see in the pics I took.

Perlage

Then we went to visit the Perlage Wines Winery. It is located along the Prosecco DOCG road (from Valdobbiadene to Conegliano).

The owner Ivo Nardi welcomed us and explained us something about the Winery. It is a family company. Once his father was a farmer and a milk producer. At the end of the ’70s the Government settled some financial grants to stop producing milk so in 1985 Ivo’s parents and his 6 brothers decided to found Perlage Wines. From the beginning they had the idea to concentrate also on organic wines due to their special attention to preserve the biodiversity and the characteristics of the ground. Each year with the help of oenologist they decided to dedicate a vineyard to a specific wine production. They still use the manual cultivation of the grapes. With its production method Perlage demonstrates attention to customer, environment and local community.

Organic wine aims

• Conserving the biodiversity of the soil
• Reducing the amount of copper (already reduced by 35% and it will be even more reduced in the future)
• Continuous monitoring of the crops
• Using organic compost to enrich the soil
• Employing no chemical fertilizers, insecticides and herbicides
• Reducing sulphites
• Providing the offices with low impact systems

Perlage Wines is now one of the most renowned organic wine producer in the Veneto region and the only Wineryin the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Consortium producing organic Prosecco DOCG. The 75% of their wines is exported abroad. The main characteristic that distinguishes organic and non organic wine is the clarifier. Non organics wines are clarified with casein and albumin (one derives from milk, and the other one from eggs), while the organic ones use plant materials (pea proteins of grape seeds).

Tasting

After the visit to the cellar, we proceeded with a tasting of four different wines: Zharpì (Prosecco doc Treviso brut), Canah (Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG brut), Quorum (Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG extra dry) and Animae (Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG brut without sulphites). The last one had a too intense flavour for me, Canah was my favourite.

During the tasting I noticed a bird shape on the bottles so I asked Jessica how did it come. The bird is a rigogolo (oriole) and you can see it in many of the Perlage Wines bottles. The Oriole, in order to nidificate, searches areas where it is easy to find both water and food (rivers, orchards or vineyards).

Osteria senz’Oste

After a good lunch at the Trattoria Ai Do Archi in Farra di Soligo (very welcoming and with pretty good food. And I was told it is also an inn!), we went to see the famous Osteria senz’oste (The inn without innkeeper) o All’Oste che non c’è (you will find it by this name on Google Maps), a quirky place where you go by foot and find a little house, an amazing view on the Prosecco hills, some chairs and benches, a vineyard which provides some shadow and a unique atmosphere. Inside the inn there is a fridge where you can help yourself taking cold cuts, cooked eggs, wine, etc and pay your fee at an automatic cash machine (to be honest, not so cheap and I saw only packaged products, coming form the Supermarket).

If you want just water, there is a free fountain outside. The bathroom is a toilet between the vineyard rows, hidden by some hedges. Up the hill there is a vending machine with Prosecco and other local wines bottles, glasses and chocolate salami. At some point the Innkeeper arrived and, believe me, he is such a character! He bought the place long ago and went there as a relaxing place in his free time with his family. Since some friends started complaining with him, because they often went there without finding him, he started leaving there some things: a bottle of wine, some cookies, some notes, etc. In time people began to come there and pay something for what they found there. He told us also of his scoundrelly childhood. It was a real fun meeting him!

Prosecco hills

There our blog tour ended and we all parted to come back home. It was a great day in a beautiful area. I recommend absolutely a visit to this area to taste some good wine and enjoy the landscapes of the Prosecco hills.