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

Cantine Conte Collalto

Family-owned estate in Susegana farming 150 hectares in Prosecco DOCG territory, with estate-only Glera for sparkling wine and rare indigenous Wildbacher and Verdiso.

The producer

The Collalto family has farmed the hills above Susegana since 958, when King Berengario granted Rambaldo di Collalto woods, meadows, pastures, and vineyards at the foot of the Treviso hills. That landholding has never changed hands. Today Isabella Collalto de Cröy manages the estate from the 1904 Susegana cellar, beneath the Castle of San Salvatore, dating to 1245. The 150 hectares are farmed exclusively with estate fruit: no bought-in grapes, no purchased juice.

Roughly 100 of those hectares fall inside the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG, making Glera-based sparkling wine the numerical centre of the range. But Collalto also grows Wildbacher, an Austrian red variety planted on the estate in 1700 and aged in oak, and Verdiso, a white grape once common in the Treviso hills and now rare. Isabella de Cröy eliminated chemical herbicides from 2019, earned SQNPI certification, and in summer 2024 brought a photovoltaic installation online that made the winery fully energy self-sufficient. The estate-only model and the survival of that Wildbacher parcel give Collalto a profile that extends well past standard Prosecco territory.

Known for

Prosecco Superiore DOCG from estate fruit, plus single-variety Wildbacher red and bottle-fermented Ottaviano.

Notable facts

The story

The Austrian vine that stayed

Count Antonio di Collalto planted Wildbacher on the estate in 1700. The variety was Austrian in origin, dark-skinned and tannic, already unlike anything the neighbouring Veneto estates were growing. He planted it anyway. The family never pulled it out. Prosecco arrived and took over the hills, the Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG was written around Glera, cooperatives and large houses shaped the commercial sparkling category, and the Wildbacher plot kept going in its corner of Susegana. Three centuries of Italian wine history passed around it. Collalto still harvests the parcel, still ages the wine in oak, and still bottles it under its own name as a single-variety IGP red. The vine Count Antonio planted as an aristocratic experiment is now the most anomalous and most distinctive bottle the estate produces.

From the atlas

Cantine Conte Collalto

At A Glance

Producer: Cantine Conte Collalto Village / Town: Susegana, Treviso Region: Veneto Appellation: Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG Key Grapes: Glera, Wildbacher, Verdiso Estate Size: 150 hectares of vineyards Model: Estate fruit only

The Producer

The Castle of San Salvatore has stood above Susegana since 1245. The family farming the hills around it has been there even longer. In 958, King Berengario granted Rambaldo di Collalto the Montello wood and the Curtis di Lovadina, woods, meadows, pastures, and vineyards at the foot of the Treviso hills. That grant is the documented beginning of a landholding the Collalto family has never surrendered.

Today the estate is managed by Isabella Collalto de Cröy, who took over the winery and vineyards in 2007. The cellar she works from was built in 1904, inside the historic Susegana complex. The 150 hectares she farms are planted entirely with estate fruit: no bought-in grapes, no purchased juice. Roughly 100 of those hectares fall inside the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG, making Prosecco the numerical centre of the range, but not the whole story.

Place

Susegana sits in the eastern stretch of the Treviso hills, on the edge of Conegliano Valdobbiadene, the elongated DOCG zone that runs between the two towns of the same name in northeastern Veneto. The appellation is built around Glera, a grape that produces sparkling wine by secondary fermentation in sealed tanks, a method called Charmat or Martinotti. The combination of hillside terrain, cool nights from the Dolomites to the north, and the Adriatic moderating humidity from the south gives Glera its characteristic freshness and delicate floral lift.

Within the DOCG, classification descends from Rive, single-vineyard wines from a named commune or hamlet, through Superiore di Cartizze, the 107-hectare subzone considered the appellation's most prized hill, to the broader Conegliano Valdobbiadene Superiore label that covers the rest. Collalto's 100 DOCG hectares qualify for the Superiore designation. The remaining 50 hectares carry indigenous and international varieties under Treviso IGP, which allows a wider range of grapes and styles outside the Prosecco appellation rules.

Soil And Site

The Treviso hills around Susegana are composed of moraine deposits left by glacial retreat, alternating layers of clay, silt, and gravel with good drainage and moderate fertility. The elevation and slope aspect vary across the estate's parcels: hillside plots with southern exposure ripen Glera evenly, while flatter ground suits the still varieties. The Wildbacher parcel, planted in 1700, occupies ground that has grown the same variety continuously for over three centuries, which tells something about the site's ability to sustain an unusual vine without adjustment.

Story

Count Antonio di Collalto planted Wildbacher on the estate in 1700. The variety came from Austria, and in Veneto it was an anomaly: a dark-skinned, firmly tannic red grape in a region whose wine production was already moving toward light whites and delicate fizz. The family kept it.

Isabella de Cröy's arrival in 2007 shifted the estate's direction on two fronts. In the vineyard, chemical herbicides were phased out entirely by 2019, and the estate earned SQNPI certification, the Italian integrated pest management standard. In the cellar, she pushed the native-variety tier, the Wildbacher and the Treviso white Verdiso, into clearer positions within the range, giving them separate listings rather than treating them as curiosities behind the Prosecco. On the energy side, wood-chip heating, a company hydroelectric plant, and a photovoltaic installation that came online in summer 2024 made the winery fully self-sufficient in electricity.

The estate-only model, farming exclusively its own fruit, connects back across all of this. When the family has farmed the same hills for over a thousand years, an estate-only commitment is less a marketing choice than an operating logic.

Vineyards And Cellar

The 100 DOCG hectares are farmed under integrated management with no chemical herbicides. Canopy management on the hillside parcels controls yield and preserves Glera's natural acidity and freshness. Harvest is by hand across the native-variety parcels.

In the cellar, the sparkling wines are produced by the Charmat method: secondary fermentation takes place in pressurised tanks, preserving the light, fresh aromatic profile that defines the Prosecco DOCG style. The Ottaviano takes a different route: bottle refermented and left undisgorged, it retains its lees and arrives in the glass cloudy, with yeasty depth and a texture quite unlike the filtered brut expressions.

The Wildbacher is vinified as a still red and aged in oak barrels, which softens some of the grape's native grip while preserving its tannic frame and wild fruit character. The oak ageing is not decorative: Wildbacher carries enough acidity and tannin to absorb it without losing its edge.

Wines

The range divides into three tiers. The sparkling Prosecco DOCG tier centres on the San Salvatore Brut, 100% Glera from estate parcels, produced by Charmat method and matured briefly before release. It is dry in style, with green apple, white peach, and fine mousse. The extra-dry expressions carry a few grams more residual sugar, softening the fruit and making the floral notes more pronounced.

The Ottaviano sits outside the standard Prosecco profile. Glera-based but bottle-refermented and left on its lees, it is intentionally hazy. The lees contact adds a creamy texture, a brioche note, and a fuller mid-palate weight; the mousse is finer and more integrated than in the tank-fermented bruts. It drinks more like an ancestral-method sparkling wine than a commercial Prosecco.

The native-variety tier carries the Wildbacher IGP red and the Verdiso white. The Wildbacher opens with dark cherry, blackcurrant, and a struck-flint note, then delivers firm tannins, high acidity, and a long, dry finish. It is not built for easy early drinking: the tannin and acidity need food or time. Verdiso is a light, high-acid white with citrus and herb character, a grape that was once common in the Treviso hills and is now rare. The international still wines, Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet, and Pinot, complete the portfolio under Treviso IGP.

In The Glass

The San Salvatore Brut opens with white peach, green apple, and a faint wisteria note. In the mouth it is light-bodied with bright acidity, a clean mousse, and a dry finish. The Glera shows what it does best: aromatic lift without weight, freshness without sharpness, and a finish that fades cleanly rather than lingering.

The Ottaviano is a different animal. The lees give it a yeasty, almost bready depth under the same peach and apple fruit. The mousse is tighter. The mid-palate is fuller and slightly creamy. It finishes longer and with more texture than the brut, and it pairs naturally with food in a way that the lighter tank-fermented expressions do not.

The Wildbacher is the outlier in the range. Dark-fruited, grippy, and firmly acidic, it has the structural profile of a mountain red: tannic, food-driven, and built to hold up to cured meat, aged cheese, or a braise. The oak time rounds the roughest edges without pulling it toward a smooth, international style. It finishes dry and long, with a trace of leather and dried herbs.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the San Salvatore Brut. It is 100% Glera from estate parcels in the Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG, made by Charmat method, dry, and released with fine mousse and clean white-fruit aromatics. The wine is not complex, but it is honest: estate fruit, no bought-in grapes, no blending with purchased base wine. It shows what a grower Prosecco tastes like when the producer controls everything from vine to bottle. At the price point, it outperforms the category average on freshness and length, and it gives a clean read on what the Susegana parcels produce.

Once you have a sense of the Brut, the Ottaviano is the next move: same grape, same estate, fundamentally different method, and a wine that challenges the assumption that Prosecco is necessarily light and easy.

Anecdote

Count Antonio di Collalto planted Wildbacher on the estate in 1700. The variety was Austrian in origin, dark-skinned and tannic, already unlike anything the neighbouring Veneto estates were growing. He planted it anyway. The family never pulled it out. Prosecco arrived and took over the hills, the Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG was written around Glera, cooperatives and large houses shaped the commercial sparkling category, and the Wildbacher plot kept going in its corner of Susegana. Three centuries of Italian wine history passed around it. Collalto still harvests the parcel, still ages the wine in oak, and still bottles it under its own name as a single-variety IGP red. The vine Count Antonio planted as an aristocratic experiment is now the most anomalous and most distinctive bottle the estate produces.

Final Word

Cantine Conte Collalto is a Prosecco DOCG estate that happens to also farm an Austrian red variety planted before the French Revolution. The estate-only model keeps the range coherent: every bottle traces to the same 150 hectares in the Treviso hills. The San Salvatore Brut is the entry point; the Wildbacher is the argument for going further.

Sources

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