Italy · Soave, Gambellara & Lessini (eastern Verona / western Vicenza)

Colli Vicentint, Vitevis Cantine Società Cooperativa Agricol

Cooperative winery in the Berici Hills near Montecchio Maggiore, founded by 33 growers in 1955, now part of the Vitevis group. Sparkling wine specialist; Cadia Chardonnay is the most widely exported label.

The producer

Colli Vicentini sits in the Berici Hills south of Vicenza, where volcanic soil above dense clay has been shaped by geological uplift over 60 million years. Thirty-three growers founded the cooperative in April 1955 under their first president, Tullio Pranovi, pooling harvests and resources at a moment when individual growers in postwar northeastern Italy had neither the capital nor the market access to bottle their own wine. The cellar near Montecchio Maggiore draws grapes from approximately 1,200 hectares of member vineyards, worked by the cooperative's own agronomists and oenologists from vineyard to bottle.

In 2015, Colli Vicentini merged with Cantina di Gambellara and Cantina Val Leogra to form Vitevis, a group that later added Castelnuovo del Garda and by 2023 covered 2,800 hectares, 1,350 member-growers, and 13 million bottles a year across four Veneto wineries. The sustainability program is traceable: electronic vineyard treatment records have been compulsory for members farming more than one hectare since 2013, nineteen weather stations operate across the group's vineyards, and roughly half the group's area carries SQNPI certification for integrated production. Cadia Chardonnay is the wine most buyers outside Italy will encounter: 100% Chardonnay, fermented in stainless steel after brief skin maceration, dry, light, and slightly more textured than its price suggests.

Known for

Sparkling wines; Cadia Chardonnay IGT Veneto

Notable facts

The story

Thirty-Three Members and a President

In April 1955, thirty-three growers in the Berici Hills south of Vicenza chose a president, Tullio Pranovi, and formally created Colli Vicentini. The hills they worked had been producing wine since before the medieval period, and the clay soils below the volcanic surface had been formed by geological uplift tens of millions of years earlier. What the thirty-three men were doing that spring was considerably more recent and considerably more urgent: they were pooling their harvests and their resources in a part of Italy that had spent the previous decade trying to recover from wartime damage to its vineyards, its markets, and its rural economy. Pranovi led it, the thirty-three members funded it, and the cellar they built near Montecchio Maggiore is still operating in the Berici Hills today, now as part of the larger Vitevis group but drawing grapes from the same volcanic and clay hills it was founded to serve.

From the atlas

Colli Vicentint, Vitevis Cantine Società Cooperativa Agricol

At A Glance

Type: Cooperative winery Location: Berici Hills, near Montecchio Maggiore, Vicenza province, Veneto, Italy Founded: April 1955 Group: Vitevis (from 2015) Specialization: Sparkling wines; Cadia Chardonnay IGT Veneto Vineyards: Approximately 1,200 hectares of member vineyards

The Producer

Colli Vicentini sits in the Berici Hills south of Vicenza, a cooperative that thirty-three growers built from scratch in April 1955. Their first president was Tullio Pranovi. The cellar near Montecchio Maggiore draws grapes from approximately 1,200 hectares of member vineyards, worked by the cooperative's own agronomists and oenologists who follow growers from the vineyard forward. Its declared specialization is sparkling wine.

In 2015, Colli Vicentini merged with Cantina di Gambellara and Cantina Val Leogra to form Vitevis, a group that later incorporated Castelnuovo del Garda. By 2023, Vitevis reported 2,800 hectares, 1,350 member-growers across four Veneto wineries, and annual production of 13 million bottles. Colli Vicentini remains one of those four wineries, the group's address in the volcanic and clay hills east of the Adige plain.

Outside Italy, Cadia Chardonnay is the wine most likely to appear on a shelf or a list, a still white IGT Veneto made entirely from Chardonnay. It is an honest introduction to what the cooperative produces at scale: clean fruit, mild acidity, and a slightly unusual resinous texture that comes from the brief skin contact before pressing.

Place

The Berici Hills rise south of Vicenza as a compact limestone and volcanic plateau cut by river erosion over tens of millions of years. The soils are a mixture of volcanic material and clay deposited by geological uplift roughly 60 million years ago, and the surface layer carries both morainic and volcanic mineral character. This is not the glaciated moraine of Lake Garda or the gravel of the Piave plain; the Berici Hills have their own geology and their own water regime.

The climate in this part of Vicenza province is mild and drier than areas further north. The hills shelter vineyards from cold air moving down from the Alps, and the southern orientation of many parcels extends the growing season. Less rainfall means less disease pressure and riper fruit at moderate alcohol levels. Cadia Chardonnay comes in at 12% ABV, which is consistent with a site that ripens slowly without overheating.

The IGT Veneto designation on the Cadia label is a broad regional category covering the whole of Veneto. The Berici Hills have their own DOC, Colli Berici, but Colli Vicentini sells its main export white under the wider IGT classification, which allows more flexibility in grape sourcing and blending across member vineyards.

Soil And Site

The Berici Hills geology begins with Eocene-era uplift, when clay-rich marine sediments were pushed toward the surface and then overlaid by volcanic material from eruptions active across northeastern Italy during the same period. The profile is layered: volcanic mineral material above, dense clay below. Both layers influence vine behavior. Clay retains water through dry summers, reducing stress during the critical August ripening window. Volcanic mineral content in the upper soil is often associated with aromatic lift and saline finish in white wines grown on similar profiles elsewhere in Italy.

The cooperative's vineyards receive less rainfall than Vicenza city to the north, and the hillside positions allow cold air drainage at night, preserving acidity in the grapes even in warm years.

Story

Colli Vicentini was created in April 1955, a decade after the end of a war that damaged vineyards, disrupted markets, and cut rural incomes across northeastern Italy. Thirty-three growers pooled their harvests and their risk under Pranovi's presidency, choosing cooperative ownership over selling grapes to outside buyers. The model gave them a shared cellar, shared equipment, and a shared label at a moment when individual growers had neither the capital nor the market access to bottle their own wine.

For six decades the cooperative operated independently. Then, on 1 July 2015, Colli Vicentini merged with two neighboring cellars, Cantina di Gambellara to the south and Cantina Val Leogra to the north, to form Vitevis. Castelnuovo del Garda joined afterward. The merger changed the cooperative from a single-hill operation to part of a multi-appellation group spanning Veneto from the Berici Hills to the shore of Lake Garda.

That scale brought infrastructure that a smaller cellar could not have sustained alone. Since 2013, all Vitevis members farming more than one hectare have been required to maintain an electronic register of vineyard treatments. Nineteen weather stations now operate across the group's vineyards. By 2023, roughly 1,400 hectares across the group carried SQNPI certification, the Italian national protocol for integrated production, and Vitevis had been authorized since 2017 to self-check its own compliance.

Vineyards And Cellar

Colli Vicentini's member vineyards cover approximately 1,200 hectares in the Berici Hills. The cooperative employs its own agronomists and oenologists, who advise growers on treatments, timing, and harvesting decisions from the vineyard forward. This in-house technical team is the mechanism by which a cooperative producing millions of bottles maintains enough consistency to bottle under a single label.

The electronic treatment register, in place since 2013 for any member farming more than one hectare, creates a traceable record of what was applied to each parcel and when. Nineteen weather stations supply real-time data on temperature, humidity, and precipitation across the group's vineyard territories, allowing agronomists to time interventions more precisely and reduce the total volume of treatments applied across the season.

For Cadia Chardonnay, the cellar process is straightforward. Grapes are destemmed and briefly macerated on their skins before gentle pressing. Fermentation and ageing take place in stainless steel. No oak is used. The brief skin contact before pressing is not a winemaking flourish; it is a practical decision that draws a small amount of phenolic extraction and aromatic material from the grape skins, which contributes the slightly resinous character noted in tastings of the 2022 vintage alongside the wine's core of stone fruit and citrus.

Wines

Colli Vicentini identifies sparkling wine as its core specialization, a claim consistent with the Veneto region's deep tradition in Prosecco and Spumante production. The cooperative's full sparkling range is not fully documented at label level in currently available material, so specific cuvees, dosage levels, and grape varieties within that range cannot be stated here.

What is confirmed at product level is Cadia Chardonnay IGT Veneto. This is a still white wine, 100% Chardonnay, made from grapes grown across the Veneto. It is dry, pale in colour, and comes in at 12% ABV. The wine shows stone fruit and citrus on the nose, fresh acidity, a relatively light body, and a slightly resinous texture that distinguishes it from a straightforward neutral Chardonnay. It is positioned as an accessible, everyday white rather than an age-worthy wine: clean, direct, and built for drinking within a year or two of vintage.

The breadth of the Vitevis group, covering appellations from the Berici Hills south to Gambellara and north to the Val Leogra, suggests that Colli Vicentini's full production includes wines from several Veneto DOC and IGT categories, but only Cadia Chardonnay is documented here with confirmed composition, vinification detail, and sensory record.

In The Glass

Cadia Chardonnay opens with stone fruit, white peach and apricot alongside a clean citrus note, lemon rather than grapefruit. The nose is light and direct, without the butter or vanilla that oak would bring, and without the reduction that sometimes appears in inexpensive Chardonnays held too long before release. In the mouth, the acidity is fresh and moderately firm, enough to keep the wine lively without making it sharp. The body is light to medium. The detail that separates it from a generic Veneto white is a slightly resinous quality on the mid-palate, a waxy phenolic note that comes from the brief skin maceration before pressing. It is not heavy or tannic, just a small amount of texture from the brief skin maceration. The finish is clean and short, with citrus lingering.

This is a wine for a warm evening, a light pasta, or a simple aperitivo. It does not need food but is better with it.

A Bottle To Understand It

Cadia Chardonnay 2024 is the bottle to start with, and it is also the most available outside Italy. It is 100% Chardonnay, destemmed, briefly skin-macerated, and fermented in stainless steel. No oak. Alcohol at 12%. The brief skin contact before pressing gives the wine a slightly resinous texture that marks it out from a standard neutral Chardonnay, while the Berici Hills site and dry microclimate keep the acidity fresh. Stone fruit on the nose, a clean mid-palate, a short citrus finish. At its price point it is an honest, well-made white from a cooperative that has been farming these hills since 1955. Drink it young.

Anecdote

In April 1955, thirty-three growers in the Berici Hills south of Vicenza chose a president, Tullio Pranovi, and formally created Colli Vicentini. The hills they worked had been producing wine since before the medieval period, and the clay soils below the volcanic surface had been formed by geological uplift tens of millions of years earlier. What the thirty-three men were doing that spring was considerably more recent and considerably more urgent: they were pooling their harvests and their resources in a part of Italy that had spent the previous decade trying to recover from wartime damage to its vineyards, its markets, and its rural economy. Pranovi led it, the thirty-three members funded it, and the cellar they built near Montecchio Maggiore is still operating in the Berici Hills today, now as part of the larger Vitevis group but drawing grapes from the same volcanic and clay hills it was founded to serve.

Final Word

Colli Vicentini is a cooperative with a clear site in the Berici Hills and a documented commitment to traceable vineyard farming across the Vitevis group. The Cadia Chardonnay is the wine most buyers will encounter: light, direct, and slightly more textured than its price suggests. The sparkling range, the cooperative's stated specialization, remains worth tracking as more label-level detail becomes available.

Sources

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