Italy · Langhe

Fratelli Martini Secondo Luigi

Family-founded Prosecco and aperitivo producer from Cossano Belbo, making Charmat-method wines from Veneto Glera under the Casa Sant'Orsola label for export to more than 60 countries.

The producer

Fratelli Martini Secondo Luigi began in 1947 when Secondo Martini put the first winery below his family home in Cossano Belbo, on the Piedmont side of the hills that border Veneto. That practical arrangement, family living directly above their work, set the shape of a business that three generations have since scaled into an international export operation. The second generation drove distribution into foreign markets through the 1970s and 1980s. Eleonora Martini joined in 2011 from a career in Milan's fashion industry, bringing brand coherence to a house whose commercial reach had grown well ahead of its public visibility.

The Casa Sant'Orsola label carries the company's Prosecco DOC range: Charmat-method wines from Veneto Glera, calibrated for approachability at everyday drinking occasions. The entry Millesimato is labeled extra dry, with straw yellow color, fine persistent bubbles, and a nose of peach, apricot, wisteria, and acacia. The Prosecco Brut Millesimato 'LX' uses 100% Glera at 11% alcohol, with tropical fruit, citrus, and florals on the nose and a soft, creamy palate. Outside the Prosecco category, the Sant'Orsola Aperitivo 25 is a botanical drink with a blood orange color, citrus and herb aromatics, and a balanced, low-alcohol palate shaped for pre-dinner drinking.

Known for

Prosecco DOC, Charmat method, Casa Sant'Orsola label

Notable facts

The story

Twenty-Five Months

When Fratelli Martini settled on a name for their new botanical drink, they did not reach for a founder's name, a village, or a vintage year. They named it after the work itself. Sant'Orsola Aperitivo 25 took 25 months to complete. The recipe, a blend of herbs, spices, flowers, and roots balanced to carry aperitif-level alcohol without bitterness or weight, went through more than two years of adjustment before the house judged it stable. Twenty-five months is an unusual commitment for a drink that competes in a category with fast, simple production cycles. The name makes the development time visible on every bottle.

Twenty-Five Months

When Fratelli Martini settled on a name for their new botanical drink, they did not reach for a founder's name, a village, or a vintage year. They named it after the work itself. Sant'Orsola Aperitivo 25 took 25 months to complete. The recipe, a blend of herbs, spices, flowers, and roots balanced to carry aperitif-level alcohol without bitterness or weight, went through more than two years of adjustment before the house judged it stable. Twenty-five months is an unusual commitment for a drink that competes in a category with fast, simple production cycles. The name makes the development time visible on every bottle.

From the atlas

Fratelli Martini Secondo Luigi

At A Glance

The Producer

Fratelli Martini Secondo Luigi built a sparkling wine export operation from a farmhouse in Cossano Belbo, on the Piedmont side of the hills bordering Veneto. Secondo Martini founded the company in 1947 and put the first winery immediately below his own home, next to what is now the company headquarters. That detail still describes the character of the house: family-run, incrementally built, and structured around continuity rather than reinvention.

Three generations have worked the same logic at larger scale. The second generation drove international expansion through the 1970s and 1980s, establishing the export channels that now reach more than 60 countries. Eleonora Martini joined in 2011 from a career in Milan's fashion industry, bringing brand management discipline to a business whose volume and reach had grown well ahead of its public profile. The Casa Sant'Orsola label is the commercial face of that output: Prosecco DOC made from Glera and other authorized Veneto varieties, positioned for accessible, everyday drinking.

Place

Prosecco DOC draws its Glera from Veneto, the broad appellation covering the foothills and plains northeast of Venice. The DOC designation allows fruit from across a wide geographic area, which is why Prosecco at this commercial scale differs from the tighter Prosecco Superiore DOCG produced in the hillside zones around Conegliano and Valdobbiadene. The DOC label on a Casa Sant'Orsola bottle means Veneto-grown Glera, Charmat-method production, and a wine calibrated for approachability: low alcohol, soft mousse, and fruit-forward aromatics without the mineral depth of a hillside single-vineyard expression.

Cossano Belbo itself sits in Piedmont's Langhe and Monferrato hills, wine country better known for Moscato d'Asti and Barbera than for sparkling wine. Fratelli Martini's operation spans both regions in practice: the business roots are Piedmontese, the Prosecco raw material is Venetian.

Soil And Site

The research does not document specific vineyard holdings or soil profiles for the Glera sourced under Casa Sant'Orsola. What the DOC framework establishes is that the grapes come from Veneto, where Glera is grown across a mix of alluvial plains and low foothills. At the DOC level, blend flexibility and volume consistency take priority over parcel-specific expression. The Charmat method, in which secondary fermentation happens in sealed tanks rather than individual bottles, amplifies the grape's natural aromatics while keeping the wine fresh and approachable rather than yeast-complex or mineral-edged.

Story

Secondo Martini started in 1947 with a simple physical arrangement: the winery went in below the family house, and the family lived above their work. That proximity was not a marketing decision. It was the practical shape of a small postwar Italian farmhouse operation, and it happened to create the kind of close-grained family involvement that has kept the company in Martini hands across three generations.

The expansion phase came in the following decades, when the second generation pushed distribution into international markets. By the time Eleonora Martini arrived in 2011, the house was already a volume exporter. Her contribution was a different kind of work: applying brand coherence to a company that had grown through commercial momentum rather than deliberate positioning. The Casa Sant'Orsola label, the aperitivo range, and the shaped product architecture of the current lineup came during that third-generation effort to make the scale legible across its lineup.

Vineyards And Cellar

Casa Sant'Orsola Prosecco is made using the Charmat method, also called the Martinotti method after its Italian developer. In this process, the base wine undergoes its second fermentation inside a pressurized tank, which traps carbon dioxide and creates the bubbles. The tank environment preserves the fresh, fruity aromatics of Glera: peach, apricot, and citrus stay vivid because the wine spends weeks rather than years in contact with yeast. This produces a light, mousse-forward sparkling wine rather than a complex, aged one.

For the Prosecco Brut Millesimato 'LX', the house uses 100% Glera at 11% alcohol, which keeps the wine light in body and tilts the aromatic profile toward tropical fruit, citrus, and florals. The extra dry Millesimato carries a small residual sugar level, which rounds the palate and softens the acidity without making the wine sweet in any obvious sense.

Wines

The Casa Sant'Orsola range runs across two Prosecco expressions and a botanical aperitivo.

The entry-level Casa Sant'Orsola Prosecco Millesimato is labeled extra dry, meaning a controlled residual sugar that sits between brut and demi-sec on the Prosecco sweetness scale. In the glass it is straw yellow with fine, persistent bubbles. The nose opens on peach, apricot, wisteria, and acacia. The palate is fruity and savory, with well-present, balanced acidity that keeps it from feeling soft or flat.

The Prosecco Brut Millesimato 'LX' steps up to 100% Glera with a drier dosage and a more defined aromatic profile. Tropical fruit, citrus, orange blossom, hawthorn, and acacia lead the nose. The palate is soft and creamy, with freshness and a light texture that carries through to a clean finish at 11% alcohol.

Sant'Orsola Aperitivo 25 sits outside the Prosecco category entirely. It is a botanical aperitivo with a bright blood orange color. The nose is citrus-forward with spice and Mediterranean herbs underneath. On the palate it is complex, soft, and well-balanced, shaped for pre-dinner drinking at lower alcohol.

In The Glass

Glera grown across the Veneto DOC zone tends toward delicate aromatics rather than deep fruit concentration, and the Charmat method amplifies that tendency. Both Prosecco expressions from Casa Sant'Orsola open with a burst of floral and stone fruit on the nose: the entry Millesimato runs to peach and apricot with wisteria and acacia behind them, while the 'LX' Brut shifts toward tropical fruit and citrus with orange blossom and hawthorn adding depth.

On the palate, the mousse is fine and persistent rather than coarse or aggressive. The extra dry Millesimato has a savory quality on the finish, its acidity balanced and present without sharpness. The 'LX' Brut is softer and creamier, with a lightness in body that keeps the fruit easy and the finish clean. Neither wine is built for cellaring. Both are calibrated for immediate pleasure: cold glass, warm evening, no particular occasion required.

The Aperitivo 25 is a different drink, though it also favors balance over weight. Blood orange in color, citrus and herb on the nose, and a palate that manages complexity without becoming bitter or heavy. It fits the pre-dinner moment that Italian aperitivo culture has exported alongside Campari and Aperol, but with a producer-specific recipe behind it.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Prosecco Brut Millesimato 'LX'. It is 100% Glera from Veneto, made by the Charmat method at 11% alcohol, and it shows the cleaner edge of what this house does with its core grape. The brut dosage keeps the wine drier than the entry Millesimato, which lets the tropical fruit, citrus, and floral aromatics carry without the rounding effect of extra residual sugar. The palate is soft and creamy with a fresh finish. It is light enough to drink before eating and structured enough to hold up alongside food. At this price point and volume level, that balance is the skill.

Anecdote

When the development team at Fratelli Martini settled on a name for their new botanical drink, they did not reach for a founder's name, a village, or a vintage year. They named it after the work itself. Sant'Orsola Aperitivo 25 took 25 months to complete. The recipe, a blend of herbs, spices, flowers, and roots chosen to balance sugar softness with aperitif-level alcohol, went through more than two years of adjustment before the house judged it stable. Twenty-five months is an unusual investment for a product that competes in a category with simple, fast production cycles. The name makes the development time visible on every bottle, which is either a statement of patience or a quiet boast, depending on how you read it.

Final Word

Fratelli Martini Secondo Luigi is a commercial-scale Prosecco house founded by a family, focused on exports, and built on accessible sparkling wine from Veneto Glera. The Casa Sant'Orsola label does not compete on terroir or artisan production. It competes on consistency, approachability, and the kind of gentle, fruit-forward Charmat-method Prosecco that has made the category one of the world's best-selling sparkling wines. The Aperitivo 25 shows a house willing to spend time on something new. The founding story shows where the discipline comes from.

Sources

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