From the atlas
Azienda agricola Buffon
At A Glance
Producer: Azienda Agricola Buffon (commercial name: Buffon Giorgio) Location: Castello Roganzuolo, San Fior di Sopra, Alta Marca Trevigiana, Veneto Core grape: Glera Key wines: Prosecco Superiore Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG Brut and Extra Dry; Prosecco DOC Treviso; varietal whites and reds Annual production: 150,000 bottles Run by: Brothers Quirino and Cleris Buffon
The Producer
Buffon is a family estate in Castello Roganzuolo, a small village on the edge of Conegliano in the Alta Marca Trevigiana, the hill country of northeastern Veneto where the land climbs into the Dolomite foothills and the Glera grape has been cultivated for generations. Brothers Quirino and Cleris Buffon handle every production phase personally: vine cultivation, harvest, vinification, and bottling, without delegating to outside contractors or a hired cellar team. At 150,000 bottles per year, that degree of direct involvement is a deliberate operating model, not a small-grower default.
The estate appears under two names. The formal legal entity is Azienda Agricola Buffon. The regional Prosecco Consorzio lists it as Buffon Giorgio, a commercial designation derived from the family name. Both refer to the same property, the same vines, and the same two brothers.
Place
Castello Roganzuolo sits near Conegliano, the eastern anchor of the Prosecco Superiore Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG, a denomination that runs west through the hills to Valdobbiadene across a corridor of steep, terraced, glacially sculpted terrain. The Alta Marca Trevigiana is the broader cultural and geographic zone that contains this hill country: elevated, cooler than the Venetian plain below, and shaped by morainic soils left by retreating glaciers.
The DOCG designation matters on the label because it signals hillside Glera grown within a legally bounded zone of higher-altitude parcels, as distinct from Prosecco DOC Treviso, which draws from flatter land across the wider Treviso province. Buffon makes wines in both tiers. The DOCG bottles carry the Conegliano Valdobbiadene name on the front label; the DOC Treviso bottles do not. That distinction is the first thing to check when navigating the range.
Soil And Site
Castello Roganzuolo occupies a moraine hill position with full sun exposure, a terrain type characteristic of the eastern Conegliano hills. Glacial moraine soils in this part of Veneto tend to be mineral-rich, well-draining, and mixed in texture, with layers of clay, gravel, and compressed glacial deposits that limit vine vigour and encourage Glera to ripen with freshness rather than weight. Detailed soil composition and parcel-level site data beyond this general description are not available from verified sources.
Story
The Buffon family operates within a regional tradition shaped by Conegliano's long history as a centre of Italian wine education and Prosecco production. Conegliano is home to Italy's first oenology school, founded in 1876, and the town's winemaking culture has moved between industrial-scale cooperative production and smaller estate bottling across more than a century. Buffon sits in the estate-bottling camp: a family that manages its own vines, its own cellar, and its own bottling line rather than selling grapes or bulk wine to a larger house.
At 150,000 bottles annually, the estate operates at a scale that requires genuine logistical competence to sustain without delegation. The brothers' choice to keep every phase in-house, from cultivation through to labelled bottle, reflects a production philosophy common among mid-scale family estates in the Veneto: proximity to the product at every step, with the family name on the label as the guarantee behind it.
Vineyards And Cellar
The Buffons farm their own vineyards in Castello Roganzuolo, working through the full growing season and conducting their own harvest rather than buying in fruit. The moraine hill position provides drainage and sun exposure. No details on specific training systems, vine age, or cellar equipment are available from current verified sources. What is documented is the brothers' hands-on management of cultivation, harvest, vinification, and bottling as a continuous and undivided process.
Wines
The range divides into two clear tiers and two broad categories.
At the top, Prosecco Superiore Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG comes in Brut and Extra Dry styles, both from Glera grown in the DOCG hill zone. Brut carries less residual sugar, typically under 12 grams per litre, and finishes drier, with the apple and pear fruit of Glera offset by a more pronounced acidity. Extra Dry sits just above Brut on the sweetness scale, between 12 and 17 grams per litre, which softens the finish and adds a slight floral lift. Both styles are produced by the Charmat method, with secondary fermentation in pressurised tanks to build mousse and preserve Glera's fresh fruit character.
Below the DOCG, Prosecco DOC Treviso covers the same Extra Dry and Brut styles but under a broader designation that permits fruit from across the Treviso province, including flatter, warmer sites. These wines are intended as approachable, everyday drinking expressions of the Prosecco style.
The still wine range adds Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon in white, and Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Marzemino in red. Marzemino is a native Venetian and Trentino grape, dark-skinned, with a track record in the eastern Veneto hills that predates the Prosecco boom. Its presence alongside international varieties is a regional signal worth noting: it is the one bottle in the range that is specific to this part of Italy rather than common across all of northern Italy's export-facing producers.
In The Glass
Glera, the grape behind all Prosecco Superiore and DOC Treviso in this range, opens with white apple, ripe pear, and a faint almond note common to the variety. The mousse from Charmat-method fermentation is soft and persistent rather than aggressive, with fine bubbles that dissipate slowly. On the palate, the Brut style brings a clean, relatively dry finish with a mild acid line and a short to medium length. The Extra Dry version carries a detectable sweetness that rounds the mid-palate and softens the apple skin bite on the finish. Neither style is built for long ageing: the appeal is the fresh, aromatic character of Glera in the year or two after bottling.
The Marzemino, where it follows regional character, tends toward a lighter body than Merlot or Cabernet Franc, with violet and dark cherry fruit, low tannin, and moderate acidity. It is typically drunk young in the Veneto, served slightly cool, and pairs with cured meats and soft cheeses rather than demanding slow-roasted dishes.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with the Prosecco Superiore Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG Brut. This is the bottle that sits highest in the range, draws on hillside Glera from the legally defined DOCG zone, and shows Buffon's work most directly. It is dry by Prosecco standards: under 12 grams per litre of residual sugar, which means the white apple and pear fruit of Glera come through without a soft, sweetened finish. The mousse is light and fine. The acid line is clean and short. It is not a complex wine, but it is an honest expression of what this terrain and this grape produce in the hands of brothers who farm and bottle without outside help. Compare it with a Prosecco DOC Treviso Brut from the same producer and the DOCG lift becomes the clear reason to start here.
Anecdote
The Prosecco Consorzio lists the estate not as Azienda Agricola Buffon but as Buffon Giorgio, a naming quirk that catches visitors off-guard when they try to cross-reference the label against the consortium directory. The reason is simple enough: the consortium registration predates the formal legal rename, and the commercial name stuck. So a producer run by two brothers named Quirino and Cleris has spent years represented under a third name, Giorgio, in the regional body that certifies their wine. When visitors arrive at Castello Roganzuolo for a tasting and ask for Giorgio, the brothers smile. There is no Giorgio. There never was a Giorgio at the estate. The name is a registration artifact from an earlier administrative moment, and the family has carried it ever since, two names on the bottle and a third on the door of the office.
Final Word
Buffon is a Prosecco estate of honest scale and clear geography. It does not trade on critical scores or a famous cuvée. Its interest is the Conegliano hill position, the brothers' hands-on model at 150,000 bottles a year, and the small signal of Marzemino in a range that might otherwise look entirely export-oriented. The DOCG Brut is the right first bottle.
Sources
- https://vinibuffon.com/
- https://www.prosecco.it/it/scheda-cantina/buffon-giorgio/
- https://www.prosecco.it/en/scheda-cantina/buffon-giorgio/