Italy · Colli Berici, Colli Euganei & Vicenza (Vicenza / Padova hills)

Maeli Societa' Agricola

An organic Veneto estate devoted almost entirely to Moscato Giallo, farmed on volcanic ground in the Colli Euganei hills outside Padua.

The producer

Maeli is an organic wine estate on Monte Pirio in the Colli Euganei, the cluster of volcanic hills that rise southwest of Padua in the Veneto. Elisa Dilavanzo owns and farms 24 hectares inside the Euganean Hills national park, and she has built the estate almost entirely around one grape: Moscato Giallo. Most Italian producers reach for this variety when making light, sweet frizzante. Dilavanzo does not. She vinifies many of her Moscato Giallo wines dry, and she makes a traditional-method sparkling whose secondary fermentation occurs in bottle rather than in tank.

The Colli Euganei soils at Maeli carry sandstone, chalk, clay, marl, and loam over an ancient volcanic base. Maeli holds two appellations: the Colli Euganei DOC for the broader range, and the Colli Euganei Fior d'Arancio DOCG, the designated label for Moscato Giallo wines from this zone. Organic certification came in 2020.

Known for

Dry and traditional-method sparkling Moscato Giallo from organic volcanic vineyards in the Colli Euganei

Notable facts

The story

The Town Without a Vineyard

Elisa Dilavanzo grew up in Rovigo, a flat provincial city in the southern Veneto. She describes it, with some amusement, as the one town in Italy without a vineyard. She was not raised around wine farming, vine age, or volcanic soil. She had no inherited parcel to return to, no family label waiting for her name. When she moved northwest to the Colli Euganei and decided to build an estate around Moscato Giallo, a grape most of her regional contemporaries were pressing into sweet frizzante and moving on from, the choice was made without the usual scaffolding of family tradition or obvious commercial logic. She founded Maeli in 2011 on Monte Pirio, planted or inherited vines in soil that mixes sandstone, chalk, clay, and volcanic rock, certified the whole operation organic in 2020, and stayed almost entirely with one grape. Rovigo, the town without a vineyard, produced a winemaker who made a single volcanic hill her whole career.

From the atlas

Maeli Societa' Agricola

At A Glance

The Producer

Maeli is an organic wine estate on Monte Pirio in the Colli Euganei, the cluster of volcanic hills that rise southwest of Padua in the Veneto. Elisa Dilavanzo owns and farms 24 hectares inside the Euganean Hills national park, and she has built the estate almost entirely around one grape: Moscato Giallo, a variety the rest of Italy reaches for mainly when making light, sweet frizzante. Dilavanzo does not do that. She vinifies many of her Moscato Giallo wines dry, and she makes a traditional-method sparkling whose secondary fermentation occurs in bottle rather than in tank.

Maeli holds two appellations. The Colli Euganei DOC covers the estate's broader range, while the Colli Euganei Fior d'Arancio DOCG is the designated label for Moscato Giallo wines from this zone. The DOCG name, Fior d'Arancio, translates as orange blossom, which is one of the aromas the grape reliably produces on volcanic ground.

Place

The Colli Euganei are volcanic hills southwest of Padua. The hills appear without geographical preparation in the flat Veneto plain southwest of Padua, isolated remnants of ancient volcanic activity. Monte Pirio is one of the higher points in the range, and the national park boundary runs through the vineyards. That protection shapes what can and cannot be done on the slopes: organic certification, which Maeli achieved in 2020, fits naturally into a farming context where the surrounding land is already managed for conservation.

The volcanic origin of the hills is what drives Dilavanzo's choice of grape. Moscato Giallo on volcanic ground develops a mineral sharpness and aromatic lift that the variety does not show in flatter, more alluvial soils. The Colli Euganei soils at Maeli carry sandstone, chalk, clay, marl, and loam over the ancient volcanic base.

Soil And Site

Maeli's 24 hectares on Monte Pirio have volcanic soils with sandstone, chalk, clay, marl, and loam in the mix. The vine age runs from 10 to 28 years, meaning the oldest parcels were planted before the estate formally existed and may have come to Dilavanzo with history already in them. Altitude and slope aspect vary across the hill, giving the farming some natural variation in ripening speed and aroma development without requiring parcel separation to be explained at the label level.

Organic certification from 2020 formalised what the estate describes as a farming approach already oriented toward the characteristics of the volcanic ground. No herbicides or synthetic treatments are used in the vineyards.

Story

Maeli was founded in 2011 and Elisa Dilavanzo was central to it from the start. She grew up in Rovigo, a city in the southern Veneto with no vineyard tradition to speak of, which makes the direction her career took somewhat against type. She found the Colli Euganei and decided that the hills and the grape they are best suited to were worth building something concentrated around.

The decision to treat Moscato Giallo as a serious dry wine was not the obvious commercial move. The variety's reputation in Italy rests almost entirely on its role as the grape behind sweet, low-alcohol frizzante, the kind of bottle that moves at aperitivo hour and is rarely discussed at dinner. Dilavanzo went the other way: dry still wines, traditional-method sparkling with bottle fermentation, careful viticulture on volcanic ground. By the time the estate reached organic certification in 2020, the range had already established that Moscato Giallo from Colli Euganei could be taken seriously in a different register from where the variety usually lives.

Vineyards And Cellar

Farming on Monte Pirio follows organic principles across all 24 hectares, with vine ages up to 28 years giving the oldest parcels some root depth into the volcanic subsoil. The mixed soil profile, sandstone, chalk, clay, marl, and loam, produces grapes with layered aromatic character rather than one dominant note, which is part of why the dry vinifications work: there is enough soil complexity to give the wine somewhere to go beyond floral sweetness.

In the cellar, the defining technical choice is the traditional-method sparkling Moscato Giallo, where secondary fermentation happens in bottle rather than in tank. This is not how most sparkling Moscato is made in Italy. The standard approach is the Charmat method, which uses a pressurised tank for the second fermentation and produces a simpler, frothier wine. Maeli's bottle-fermented version develops greater texture on the palate and more yeast-influenced depth. The dry still Moscato Giallo receives the kind of handling Dilavanzo associates with more demanding varieties: careful selection, unhurried vinification, and no concession to the sweetness the grape naturally inclines toward.

Wines

Moscato Giallo runs through everything Maeli makes. The range splits broadly into three styles. The dry still Moscato Giallo wines carry the Colli Euganei DOC or the Fior d'Arancio DOCG designation depending on the level and the wine law, and they offer Moscato Giallo at its most demanding: no residual sweetness, the full aromatic profile of the grape exposed against the volcanic soil character, and the acidity that the Colli Euganei altitude provides. These are wines that need food or at least attention; they are not aperitivo bottles.

The traditional-method sparkling is the more unusual proposition. Bottle fermentation adds texture and yeast-derived breadth to a grape more often associated with gentle froth. The mousse is finer and more integrated, and the wine develops a secondary flavour layer that tank-fermented versions of Moscato simply do not reach.

Dilì sits at the lighter end of the range, at 11% alcohol, and its sparkling character is more immediate: preserved white peach, wildflower, sweet spice, and sage lift from the glass in the way Moscato Giallo does when given the right volcanic soil and an honest vinification. Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon are also planted at Maeli, though they play a secondary role to the main Moscato Giallo work.

In The Glass

Dry Moscato Giallo from the Colli Euganei opens with the variety's characteristic aromatic brightness, orange blossom, white peach, and a floral lift that reads as fresh rather than sweet. On the palate, the volcanic soil character comes through as a slightly chalky mineral edge underneath the fruit, and the acidity keeps the wine moving through the mouth rather than sitting still. The finish on the dry versions is clean and moderately long, with the floral notes fading to something drier and more herbal.

The traditional-method sparkling adds mousse-derived texture to that aromatic base. The bubble is fine and persistent, and the secondary fermentation in bottle brings a mild yeasty depth. Dilì, at 11%, is lighter across the palate with more immediate aromatic appeal: the white peach and sage read as fresh and direct, the sweetness is low, and the finish lifts rather than lingers.

A Bottle To Understand It

Dilì is the right first bottle. It is an 11% sparkling Moscato Giallo made to be immediately readable: preserved white peach, wildflower, sweet spice, and sage on the nose, a light, lively palate with low sweetness and clean acidity, and a finish that rises rather than fades into heaviness. The alcohol is low enough to drink through the afternoon without effort, and the aromatic character of Moscato Giallo from volcanic soils is clear from the first pour. Dilì does not ask for food or knowledge to enjoy.

Anecdote

Elisa Dilavanzo grew up in Rovigo, a flat provincial city in the southern Veneto. She describes it, with some amusement, as the one town in Italy without a vineyard. She was not raised around wine farming, vine age, or volcanic soil. She had no inherited parcel to return to, no family label waiting for her name. When she moved northwest to the Colli Euganei and decided to build an estate around Moscato Giallo, a grape most of her regional contemporaries were pressing into sweet frizzante and moving on from, the choice was made without the usual scaffolding of family tradition or obvious commercial logic. She founded Maeli in 2011 on Monte Pirio, planted or inherited vines in soil that mixes sandstone, chalk, clay, and volcanic rock, certified the whole operation organic in 2020, and stayed almost entirely with one grape. Rovigo, the town without a vineyard, produced a winemaker who made a single volcanic hill her whole career.

Final Word

Maeli is a small Veneto estate devoted almost entirely to Moscato Giallo, farmed organically on volcanic ground in the Colli Euganei, across dry still and traditional-method sparkling styles. The dry still wines and the traditional-method sparkling are the more demanding expressions. Dilì is the most accessible. All of them begin from the same place: one grape, one hill, one winemaker who came from somewhere with no vines at all.

Sources

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