From the atlas
Cantina Vini Armani A. Srl
At A Glance
Producer: Albino Armani (Cantina Vini Armani A. Srl) Country: Italy Region: Veneto Base: Dolcè, Verona Grape: Glera Key Project: Casa Belfi Style: Natural frizzante, biodynamic, unfiltered Founded: 1607
The Producer
Albino Armani has been making wine in Veneto since 1607, a founding claim that places the company among the oldest documented wine producers in Italy. Today it runs five cellars across three Italian territories, but its most singular work happens in the flatlands of the Venetian plain, under the Casa Belfi label.
Casa Belfi is a biodynamic project built in partnership between Albino Armani and winemaker Maurizio Donadi. It produces natural, unfiltered, Glera-based frizzante wines in the zone where Prosecco is grown, and it holds Demeter certification, the internationally recognised standard for biodynamic agriculture. As of 2016, Casa Belfi was the only Prosecco producer in the entire Venetian flatlands to carry that certification. The amphora wine it produces is the only skin-contact amphora frizzante from the zone.
Armani's stated position is that wine must speak for the land and the community around it, valued first by the farmers and neighbours who live with it, before it is measured against market benchmarks.
Place
Glera is the white grape of the Prosecco zone, grown across a wide arc of northeastern Veneto, from the foothills of the Dolomites down into the flat alluvial plains that spread between Treviso and Venice. The flatland parcels are the less fashionable part of that geography: Prosecco's prestige is concentrated in the hillside Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG zone, where slopes, chalk, and morning mist supply the conditions most associated with the grape's perfumed freshness.
Casa Belfi sits in the plains. Growing Glera there, without the hillside advantage of drainage and diurnal temperature swing, places a different demand on farming. The soils are heavier, the growing conditions less naturally forgiving, and the yields more difficult to manage toward intensity. The decision to farm without pesticides on that terrain, and to seek Demeter certification, is a more difficult commitment in the flatlands than in the hills.
The Armani company's main seat is at Dolcè, in the province of Verona, at the southern end of Lake Garda country, within reach of the Valpolicella and Garda appellations.
Soil And Site
Casa Belfi's flatland parcels sit on Venetian alluvial soils, the kind of deep, stone-mixed terrain deposited over centuries by rivers running off the Dolomites. Biodynamic treatment replaces synthetic inputs with decoctions and herbal preparations drawn from nettles, horsetail, silica, and chamomile. These are applied on schedules tied to lunar and seasonal cycles rather than to chemical need, keeping the soil alive and microbially complex without pesticide intervention.
The amphora wine takes skin contact in terracotta vessels. Terracotta is porous without being reactive in the way oak is: it allows micro-oxygenation and temperature exchange without contributing tannin or flavour compounds, and it gives the wine a mineral quality that tank or barrel aging does not.
Story
Maurizio Donadi came to Casa Belfi by a circuitous route. He farmed conventionally, as most of the Venetian plains were farmed, using the chemical inputs standard to large-scale viticulture. Then the chemicals began to affect him physically. He stopped using them.
From that decision, he moved steadily toward certification. Organic status came in 2004. Donadi kept going, studying Rudolf Steiner's biodynamic philosophy and converting his farming practices to meet Demeter's requirements. In 2016, he completed Demeter certification, becoming the sole Prosecco producer in the flatlands to do so. The certification is not merely a label claim: it requires annual inspection, documented practice, and adherence to a specific calendar of biological farming work.
Albino Armani joined Donadi in developing Casa Belfi as a project within the broader company, giving the biodynamic wines their own label while backing the farming commitment with multi-generation resources. Armani's wider proposal for the Brentonico mountain viticulture zone, where he has advocated synergistic collaboration between farms, local governments, and citizens, sits alongside the Casa Belfi work as part of the same outlook: wine made to serve the place and the people around it, not to compete outward.
Vineyards And Cellar
Casa Belfi vines grow without pesticides on the Venetian flatlands. The soil work uses biodynamic preparations: nettle and horsetail decoctions supply silica and mineral nutrition; chamomile adds calcium; all applications follow the Demeter calendar rather than reactive chemical logic.
In the cellar, the approach is minimal. The Naturalmente Frizzante is sealed in bottle in spring, when residual sugars trigger a second fermentation by native yeasts already present in the wine. Carbon dioxide produced by that fermentation becomes the natural mousse. The yeast settles to the bottom of the bottle, where it slowly breaks down, releasing compounds that add body and longevity to the wine. Nothing is filtered out and nothing is clarified.
The Anfora takes an additional step: Glera is macerated on its skins in terracotta amphora jars before the wine is pressed and bottled. The maceration pulls colour, texture, and mineral character from the skins. The amphora's porous walls allow slow oxygen exchange without adding any flavour of their own.
Wines
The Casa Belfi range has two confirmed expressions.
Casa Belfi Naturalmente Frizzante Bianco is 100% Glera. It ferments naturally in bottle during spring, when native yeasts complete the alcoholic fermentation in the sealed vessel, producing fine bubbles from within the wine rather than from external carbonation. The colour is straw yellow. The nose carries citrus and bread-crust notes, the character that comes from Glera's mild fruit and the yeast activity during bottle fermentation. Acidity is lively and balanced. Yeast sediment on the bottle floor softens the texture over time and gives the wine more longevity than its price suggests.
Casa Belfi Anfora is Glera with skin maceration in terracotta vessels. The colour is an intense yellow, slightly cloudy from being unfiltered. The perlage is fine and persistent. The skin contact adds tannin, texture, and a mineral quality; the amphora adds nothing of its own, allowing those characters to come through unmediated. No added sulphites. Zero residue.
The broader Albino Armani company produces wines across three Italian territories and five cellars, but the packet supply of verified facts concentrates on Casa Belfi, and that is where the distinct character of the company lives.
In The Glass
The Naturalmente Frizzante opens with a pale straw colour and mousse that forms at the pour and holds in fine columns. The aroma is light and clean: citrus blossom, a little white peach, and a subtle yeasty bread note from the in-bottle fermentation. In the mouth the wine is low in body but not thin; the acidity is lively enough to cut through the soft Glera fruit, and the bubbles are fine rather than aggressive. It finishes short and clean. The yeast settled on the bottle floor makes older examples slightly softer and more complex.
The Anfora is a different thing. The skin contact gives it amber tints and a cloudier pour. The nose has the same Glera citrus base but with a fuller, more textured body beneath it: dried apricot skin, a faint spice note, and the dry mineral character that comes from terracotta contact. In the mouth the tannin from the skins is present but light, adding grip without bitterness. The finish is longer than the Naturalmente Frizzante, drier, and more savoury. Both wines are still frizzante in style, with natural carbonation and no filtering, but they land in very different registers.
A Bottle To Understand It
Casa Belfi Anfora is the bottle to start with. It is 100% Glera from biodynamic flatland parcels, macerated on the skins in terracotta vessels, bottled unfiltered and unclarified without added sulphites. In the glass it pours an intense cloudy yellow with fine persistent bubbles. The skin contact gives it body and a dry, mineral edge that ordinary Prosecco-zone Glera does not have; the amphora contributes a porous, oxygen-touched texture without oak flavour. Nothing about it looks or tastes like commercial Prosecco. Start here to understand what biodynamic farming and minimal cellar work actually change in a glass of Italian frizzante.
Anecdote
Maurizio Donadi had been farming the Venetian plains the way most of the plains were farmed: tractors, synthetic fertilisers, chemical sprays for mildew and pests. Sometime in the early years of the 2000s, the sprays began to make him ill. He stopped applying them and started reading Rudolf Steiner. By 2004 he had organic certification. He kept going, converting every practice to the Demeter biodynamic standard, timing applications by the lunar calendar, replacing herbicides with nettle decoctions and chamomile preparations. In 2016, the Demeter inspectors certified Casa Belfi, and Donadi became the only Prosecco producer in the entire Venetian flatlands to hold that status. The wine he makes now carries no added sulphites, no filtration, and no clarification agents. The yeast stays in the bottle.
Final Word
Casa Belfi is a small, precise project inside a large, old company. The founding date of 1607 and five cellars across three territories are part of the Albino Armani story, but the work at Casa Belfi is what makes a bottle worth seeking out: biodynamic Glera from the Venetian plains, fermented in bottle by native yeasts, aged in terracotta, and bottled without filtration. Maurizio Donadi's Demeter certification is singular in the flatlands. The wines are singular to match.
Sources
- https://www.albinoarmani.com/en/
- https://www.doctorwine.wine/portfolio/albino-armani/?lang=en
- https://www.albinoarmani.com/en/projects/casa-belfi/
- https://www.vinoway.com/en/wine/interview/albino-armani-lets-create-a-synergistic-brentonico-model/
- https://www.albinoarmani.com/en/vini/casa-belfi-anfora/
- https://www.albinoarmani.com/en/vini/casa-belfi-naturalmentefrizzante-bianco/