Italy · Piave, Lison & eastern plain (Treviso / Venezia)

La Cantina Pizzolato

Certified organic Prosecco estate in Villorba, Treviso, farming Glera on Veneto plains near the Piave River since 1985, with USDA and European organic certification since 1991.

The producer

Pizzolato is a family organic estate on the Veneto plain in Villorba, Treviso province, where the land flattens out toward the Piave River. Settimo Pizzolato joined his father Gino in 1981 and began converting the vineyards to organic farming in 1985, before organic wine had a commercial market in Italy. By 1991, he had obtained both European and USDA NOP certification, making Pizzolato one of the first Italian estates to hold a foreign organic standard. The operation now covers 106 certified organic hectares: 58 owned by the estate and 48 farmed by partner growers working under the same rules.

The core wine is Prosecco DOC: 100 percent Glera, hand-harvested, fermented by the Charmat method in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks. The frizzante version opens with acacia blossom and white flowers, delivers fresh pear and clean acidity in the mouth, and finishes dry, with no oak contact at any point. The still range runs across Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet, Pinot Nero, Moscato and Raboso, the last a rare indigenous red from the Piave zone. The M-Use collection gathers Prosecco, Rosé Extra Dry, Pinot Grigio Spumante and Moscato Dolce in textured bottles designed to be repurposed as household objects once the wine is gone.

Known for

Certified organic Prosecco DOC Frizzante and Spumante from Glera grown near the Piave River; M-Use sparkling range in reusable design bottles.

Notable facts

The story

Settimo's Certification

Settimo Pizzolato joined his father Gino in the family business in 1981. The estate had been farming the Villorba land across multiple generations, growing grapes and selling them in bulk, as most of their neighbours did. Settimo began converting the vineyards to organic farming in 1985, four years after arriving, before any certification existed and before organic wine had a market in Italy. Six years later, in 1991, he applied for and received USDA NOP certification, a foreign standard almost no Italian producer had pursued, because he had decided Pizzolato wines would need to travel to North America and North American importers needed a name they recognised on the label. The certification date is the one the estate prints at the top of its homepage today.

From the atlas

La Cantina Pizzolato

At A Glance

The Producer

Pizzolato is an organic Prosecco estate in Villorba, a flat stretch of Treviso province where the Veneto plain spreads out toward the Piave River. The family has farmed this land for multiple generations, and for most of that time the business ran the way most Treviso producers ran: grapes sold in bulk, no label, no export ambition. Settimo Pizzolato changed that.

He joined his father Gino in 1981 and pushed the estate toward organic viticulture four years later, well before organic wine had a commercial market in Italy. By 1991, Settimo had obtained both European and USDA NOP certification, making Pizzolato one of the first Italian estates to hold a foreign organic standard. That certification date is the one the estate leads with today.

The operation now covers 106 hectares of certified organic vines: 58 hectares owned by the estate and 48 managed by partner growers who farm under the same rules. Settimo oversees production across the whole network. The winery generates half its electricity from a rooftop photovoltaic installation and runs on energy-efficient machinery, automatic lighting controls, and water-management infrastructure.

Place

Villorba sits on the Veneto plain in Treviso province, low and flat, with the Piave River to the east and the Dolomite foothills visible to the north. This is Prosecco DOC territory, the broader plain-based appellation that covers Treviso and several surrounding provinces. It is not Prosecco Superiore DOCG, the hillside designation centred on Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, where steeper slopes and clay-limestone soils push yields down and concentration up.

On the plain, conditions favour volume: mechanisable rows, consistent warmth, longer growing seasons. Pizzolato's differentiator within this geography is not site complexity but farming discipline. Where most Prosecco DOC production at this scale relies on conventional viticulture, Pizzolato has held every hectare, owned and partner-sourced, to certified organic standards for over three decades. That decision shapes the label, the price point, and the export argument.

Soil And Site

The estate vineyards lie on the plains and hillsides near the Piave River. Plain soils in this part of Treviso are predominantly alluvial, deposited by the river over centuries: sandy and gravelly in the upper layers, with clay underneath. Drainage is good, which suits Glera's tendency toward vigour. The hillside parcels offer slightly more varied ground and better natural drainage. Neither setting is classified or particularly distinctive; organic management across the whole 106-hectare base is the constant that ties the sourcing network together.

Story

The Pizzolato family's presence in Villorba goes back multiple generations. For most of that time the model was the same as their neighbours: grow grapes, sell them or the finished wine in bulk, keep costs down, stay local. Settimo broke from that pattern in stages.

When he joined his father Gino in 1981, the estate was still following conventional farming. Settimo started converting the vineyards to organic production in 1985, a decision that cost time and money against no established market reward in Italy. He was not converting for a premium label or a specialist retailer; organic wine barely existed as a category in the mid-1980s Italian domestic market.

The USDA NOP certification in 1991 made the export logic concrete. North American importers required a recognised certification standard, and Pizzolato was among the first Italian producers to meet it. That opened routes that most of the Treviso plain could not access, and the estate built an export business on the back of it. The winery now runs two sites: the Veneto base in Villorba and a Tuscan estate at Casale Terzo, both under the same organic philosophy.

Vineyards And Cellar

All 106 hectares, estate and partner, are farmed without synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers. Organic viticulture in the Veneto plain requires active management of vine disease pressure, particularly downy and powdery mildew, which are common in humid, low-altitude growing conditions. The commitment to hold partner growers to the same standard as estate rows is the structural choice that keeps the certification coherent at scale.

Glera for Prosecco DOC is hand-harvested and fermented by the Charmat method: secondary fermentation takes place in pressurised stainless-steel tanks, held at temperature-controlled conditions for approximately 30 days, reaching around 2.5 atmospheres of pressure for the frizzante style. Charmat is the standard method for Prosecco DOC across the appellation; Pizzolato follows it rather than the rarer traditional method. The tank fermentation preserves Glera's primary aromatics: white flowers, fresh pear, acacia blossom. No oak contact. The still wines, including Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet, Pinot Nero, Moscato and Raboso, are vinified in stainless steel to keep fruit clarity across the range.

Wines

The Pizzolato range divides into three groups: Prosecco DOC, organic still wines, and the M-Use collection.

The core Prosecco DOC line runs in two forms. The Prosecco DOC Frizzante is 100 percent Glera, hand-harvested, Charmat method, with a gentle mousse and a nose built on acacia blossom and white flowers. The palate is fresh, lightly pear-driven, and clean, with pleasantly firm acidity keeping the finish dry. The Prosecco DOC Spumante uses the same Glera base but runs at higher pressure, giving a livelier, more persistent bead and a slightly fuller mousse on entry.

The still wines cover both international and indigenous grapes: Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay and Moscato in white; Merlot, Cabernet, Pinot Nero and Raboso in red. Raboso is a native variety from the Piave zone, naturally high in acidity and tannin, traditionally used for long-ageing wines and a rarity outside its home territory.

The M-Use collection brings together Prosecco, a Rosé Extra Dry, Pinot Grigio Spumante and a Moscato Dolce, all in textured bottles designed for reuse as household objects once the wine is drunk. The M-Use Rosé Extra Dry shows strawberry and raspberry on the nose, with a dry, clean finish. The M-Use Moscato Dolce runs at 6.5 percent alcohol, with fine persistent bubbles, and an aromatic, sweet palate of peach and apricot. The collection gives the sparkling range a design angle that sits separately from the core label.

In The Glass

The Prosecco DOC Frizzante opens with acacia blossom and white flowers on the nose, light and clean. In the mouth, fresh pear comes first, carried by a soft mousse and enough acidity to keep the wine from feeling flat or sweet. The finish is short and dry. There is no weight here, no oak, no secondary complexity: the wine is built entirely from primary Glera fruit, preserved by cold tank fermentation and bottled young.

The Spumante version lifts the same profile with more pressure: the bead is livelier, the entry slightly more textured, the mousse more present on the midpalate before the same clean, fruit-led finish.

The M-Use Moscato Dolce moves to a different register: lower alcohol, sweeter, aromatic, with peach and apricot carrying through from nose to finish on a fine, persistent perlage. The M-Use Rosé is drier and red-fruit forward, with strawberry and raspberry on the nose and a clean exit. Across the range, the wines share a freshness and accessibility that comes from careful organic farming and cold-tank vinification rather than from site complexity or ageing.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Pizzolato Prosecco DOC Frizzante. It is 100 percent Glera from certified organic Veneto vineyards, fermented in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks for around 30 days, bottled with a gentle mousse. The nose is white flowers and acacia blossom. The palate is fresh pear and clean acidity, with a dry finish and no oak contact anywhere in the process. It is not a complex bottle, and it does not try to be: it shows what organic Charmat-method Prosecco DOC tastes like when the farming is taken seriously and the fruit is handled carefully. At this price point, on the Treviso plain, that is the proposition.

Anecdote

Settimo Pizzolato joined his father Gino in the family business in 1981. The estate had been farming the Villorba land across multiple generations, growing grapes and selling them in bulk, as most of their neighbours did. Settimo decided to go organic in 1985, four years after arriving, before any certification existed and before organic wine had a market in Italy. Six years later, in 1991, he applied for and received USDA NOP certification, a foreign standard almost no Italian producer had pursued, because he had decided Pizzolato wines would need to travel to North America and North American importers needed a name they recognised on the label. The certification date is the one the estate prints at the top of its homepage today.

Final Word

Pizzolato is the organic Prosecco argument made at scale: 106 certified hectares, a partner-grower network held to the same standards as the estate rows, and an export history built on a foreign certification obtained before most Italian producers knew what one was. The wines are everyday bottles, priced and built for regular drinking rather than cellaring, and they do that job clearly. Glera, plain soils, Charmat method, organic farming since 1985. The frizzante is where to start.

Sources

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