Italy · Prosecco — Conegliano-Valdobbiadene & Asolo (Treviso hills)

Cantina Colli del Soligo

A 600-member cooperative in Pieve di Soligo producing Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG and Prosecco DOC from 1,200 hectares of Treviso hillside vineyards, with a portfolio that runs from the approachable Col de Mez Extra Dry to the drier, slower-fermented Solicum Cuvée Brut.

The producer

Cantina Colli del Soligo is not a single estate but a collective: 600 farming families, 1,200 hectares of vineyard, and 15 municipalities across the Treviso hills all feeding into one winery and one set of bottles. The cooperative sits in Pieve di Soligo, a hill town midway between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene on the road the locals call the Prosecco Road, and every bottle it produces carries the character of that geography: shallow rocky soils with rock close to the surface, pre-Alpine air currents that reduce humidity, and a ripeness profile that holds lively acidity through harvest.

The range is built on Glera, the grape the law requires for Prosecco, made by the Charmat method across two legal tiers. Col de Mez Extra Dry and the Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Extra Dry DOCG represent the approachable register: green apple, pear, delicate floral notes, fine mousse, and residual sugar between 12 and 17 grams per litre balanced by a citrus acidity and mineral sapidity that keeps each glass from feeling confected. The Solicum Cuvée Brut sits above them, fermented more slowly with selected yeasts, drier at 7 grams per litre residual sugar, with more weight in the mid-palate and a longer, more savoury finish. All sparkling wines have carried vegan certification since 2017.

Known for

Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG

Notable facts

The story

Thirty-One Farmers and a Label

In 1957, thirty-one winegrowers in the Treviso hills agreed to stop selling their harvests in bulk. They had been doing what most small hill farmers in the Veneto did: growing Glera, delivering to outside buyers, and taking whatever price the market set. Forming a cooperative meant pooling resources for a shared cellar, committing to shared equipment, and bottling under a name they controlled. Thirty-one growers, one winery, a label that belonged to them. The following decades brought more farmers into the fold: 100, then 300, then 600. Today the cooperative covers 1,200 hectares across 15 municipalities, processes around 15,000 metric tons of grapes each year, and sends over a million bottles into the market. Every bottle carries a label that traces back to the agreement those three dozen farmers made in Pieve di Soligo the year after Sputnik launched.

From the atlas

Cantina Colli del Soligo

At A Glance

The Producer

Cantina Colli del Soligo is a cooperative winery in Pieve di Soligo, a hill town in Treviso province that sits midway between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene on the road the locals call the Prosecco Road. The winery is not a single estate but a collective: 600 farming families, 1,200 hectares of vineyard, and 15 municipalities across the Treviso hills all feed into one winery and one set of bottles.

That collective scale shapes everything about how the wines are made and what they taste like. The cooperative pools harvests from growers at different altitudes and on different soils, so each bottle represents an average across a wide geography rather than the close reading of a single parcel. The range runs from the approachable Col de Mez Extra Dry to the drier, more considered Solicum Cuvée Brut, with Prosecco DOC and still wines filling out the portfolio. Over a million bottles leave the winery each year; roughly 40% of the total grape processing, which averages 15,000 metric tons annually, goes out in bulk to regional bottlers.

Place

Pieve di Soligo sits at the geographic centre of the Prosecco zone, with Conegliano 15 kilometres to the east and Valdobbiadene 15 kilometres to the west. Those two towns give the DOCG its full name: Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore, and wines labelled under this designation must come from a defined hillside corridor between them. Cantina Colli del Soligo works within that corridor, drawing from vineyards across 15 municipalities.

The legal tier matters for the label. Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG names the hilltop zone and carries stricter yield limits and geographical specificity than the broader Prosecco DOC, which covers a much larger area across nine provinces. The cooperative produces in both tiers: the DOCG wines come from the hillside vineyards, the DOC from a wider sourcing pool.

Soil And Site

The Soligo valley floor and surrounding hillsides sit over a shallow rocky subsoil. Rock lies close to the surface, limiting vine root depth and pushing the plant to work harder for water and nutrients. Pre-Alpine air currents funnel through the valley, reducing humidity and lowering disease pressure across the growing season. Together these conditions shape a grape that ripens with moderate sugar accumulation and retains lively acidity, which is the character the Charmat method then locks into the finished wine.

The cooperative draws from eight distinct terroir zones across Treviso province, each with slightly different geological and climatic profiles. That geographic spread is an asset at cooperative scale: it averages out vintage variation and secures consistent supply.

Story

In 1957, thirty-one winegrowers in Pieve di Soligo formed an agricultural cooperative. Rather than sell their harvests to outside buyers, as most small hill farmers in the Treviso hills did, they formed an agricultural cooperative and committed to bottling under a shared name. The cooperative gave them access to shared equipment, a shared cellar, and the combined weight of their harvests in negotiations with distributors.

Over the following decades the model attracted more growers. The original 31 became 100, then 300, then 600. Vineyard coverage grew from a few shared parcels to 1,200 hectares across 15 municipalities. The wines shifted from local bulk sales to labelled bottles, and the range expanded to cover the DOCG tier, a premium cuvée, and a set of still wines alongside the core sparkling line. In 2017 the cooperative obtained vegan certification for all its sparkling wines, an operational decision that required changes to fining practice across the entire production run.

The founding choice, to bottle rather than sell, still defines the cooperative's commercial position. Approximately 60% of total production is bottled by Cantina Colli del Soligo under its own labels; the remainder goes out in bulk to regional bottlers.

Vineyards And Cellar

All sparkling wines are made by the Charmat method, also called the tank method or Metodo Martinotti in Italian. After primary fermentation, the wine undergoes a second fermentation in pressurised stainless steel tanks rather than in individual bottles, as in traditional method sparkling. This approach preserves the fresh fruit character of Glera and produces the fine, lively mousse that is characteristic of Prosecco.

For the Solicum Cuvée Brut, the cooperative uses a slower fermentation process with selected yeasts, extending contact time in tank before carbonation via autoclave. The wine undergoes carbonation via autoclave after slow fermentation in stainless steel tanks with selected yeasts.

Member growers cultivate across eight identified terroir zones. The shallow rocky soils and pre-Alpine air currents that define the Soligo valley are present across much of the hillside vineyard area, and these conditions limit yields naturally, supporting the acidity levels the wines carry.

Wines

Glera is the required grape for Prosecco under both the DOCG and DOC designations, and it appears in three clearly separated positions across the range.

The Col de Mez Extra Dry is the approachable DOCG entry. Extra Dry style means residual sugar sits between 12 and 17 grams per litre, here logged at 16 g/l, balanced by citrus acidity and what the winery describes as sapidity. At 11% ABV the wine sits light on the palate, with a smooth texture and a finish that carries the residual sweetness cleanly rather than heavily.

The Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Extra Dry DOCG carries green apple and pear aromas alongside delicate floral notes and a hint of citrus. Residual sugar falls in the same Extra Dry window (12 to 17 g/l) at 11% ABV. The effervescence is described as soft rather than aggressive, which keeps the fruit character forward and gives the finish a gentle, enveloping persistence.

The Solicum Cuvée Brut is the premium tier. Glera again, but at 11.5% ABV and with residual sugar at 7 g/l, placing it firmly in Brut territory. The palate is drier and more linear than the Extra Dry wines, with the slower fermentation process giving the wine additional weight in the mid-palate. The house positions Solicum toward food pairing rather than aperitivo drinking.

Beyond Prosecco, the range includes a Pinot Grigio DOC delle Venezie, described as delicate, fresh, and well-balanced, and the indigenous Raboso, a red Veneto grape present in the portfolio. The cooperative also lists a Metodo Classico sparkling, made by the traditional method.

In The Glass

Across the DOCG sparkling range the aromatic register is consistent: green apple and pear lead, with floral lift and a light citrus note underneath. In the Col de Mez and the Valdobbiadene Extra Dry this fruit comes forward immediately on the nose and carries through to the palate without interruption. The mousse is fine and persistent but not aggressive, and it does the work of keeping each sip clean and defined rather than heavy.

On the palate, the Extra Dry wines balance their residual sweetness against a firm citrus acidity. The sweetness is present but does not dominate; what the winery calls sapidity, a mineral saltiness, sits underneath and keeps the wine from feeling confected. The finish is persistent and smooth, with the sweetness trailing off rather than cutting abruptly.

The Solicum Brut shifts the register toward a drier, more linear experience. Less sweetness on the mid-palate, more weight from the extended fermentation, and a finish that is cleaner and more savoury than the Extra Dry bottles. It is still unmistakably Glera, with the same fruit and floral core, but the drier style gives the wine a different pace in the glass.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Solicum Cuvée Brut. It is Glera at 11.5% ABV, fermented slowly in stainless steel with selected yeasts, with residual sugar at 7 g/l making it genuinely dry rather than off-dry. The nose carries the green apple and floral character that is Glera's signature, but the palate is more considered than the Extra Dry tier: less sweetness, more weight in the mid-palate, a longer and more savoury finish. This is where the cooperative's deliberate winemaking decisions are most visible. The Solicum shows what happens when the Charmat method is given more time and selected fermentation culture, and it earns its position as the range's premium bottle without requiring familiarity with the broader portfolio.

Anecdote

In 1957, thirty-one winegrowers in the Treviso hills sat down and agreed to stop selling their harvests in bulk. They had been doing what most small hill farmers in the Veneto did: growing Glera and other grapes, delivering to outside buyers, and taking whatever price the market set. The decision to form a cooperative instead meant pooling resources for a shared cellar, committing to shared equipment, and crucially, bottling under a name they controlled. Thirty-one growers, a single winery, and a label that belonged to them. The following decades brought more growers into the fold: 100, then 300, then 600. Today the cooperative covers 1,200 hectares across 15 municipalities, processes around 15,000 metric tons of grapes each year, and sends over a million bottles into the market. The label on every bottle traces back to that agreement made by three dozen farmers in Pieve di Soligo the year after Sputnik launched.

Final Word

Cantina Colli del Soligo is a cooperative at scale in one of Italy's most commercially significant sparkling wine zones. The wines are made honestly from Glera grown on hillside soils with good acidity, processed by the Charmat method into bottles that sit at the approachable end of the Prosecco spectrum. The Solicum Cuvée Brut is the wine that earns the most attention, drier and more deliberate than the category norm. The cooperative's founding story, 31 families becoming 600 across nearly seven decades, is a useful frame for understanding what you are drinking: the averaged character of a wide hill geography, bottled by a collective that bet on its own label in 1957 and has been filling it ever since.

Sources

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