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

Vinicola Serena

Serena Wines 1881 is a Prosecco house near Conegliano in Veneto, founded in 1881 by Pietro Serena as a barrel-wine merchant and now producing over one million bottles a year under the Serenello and Terra Serena labels within the UNESCO-designated Prosecco hills.

The producer

Pietro Serena did not start with a vineyard or a cellar. In 1881, he loaded wine into wooden barrels and drove them north into the Cadore, the mountain territory above Treviso, selling to communities without easy access to the Prosecco hills below. That founding logic, wine made to travel, made to reach people, shaped what the house became over five generations.

Today, fourth-generation Giorgio Serena and his son Luca hold named leadership roles within the company, which has been part of the Casa Vinicola Botter group since 2020. The combined operation spans more than a dozen wineries and roughly 1,500 hectares of vineyards across Italy. Annual output from the Serena side exceeds one million bottles, distributed internationally under Serenello and Terra Serena. The vineyards fall within the Conegliano Valdobbiadene hills, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, and the house covers both the hillside DOCG tier and the broader Prosecco DOC.

Known for

Prosecco DOCG and DOC from Glera, Charmat method, under the Serenello and Terra Serena brands

Notable facts

The story

The barrel route to Cadore

Pietro Serena did not start with a cellar or a vineyard. In 1881, he filled wooden barrels with wine from the hills around Conegliano and drove them north into the Cadore, the mountainous stretch of territory above Treviso where the Dolomites begin to close off the horizon. The communities up there had no easy route to the winegrowing country below, and Pietro had the barrels and the willingness to make the journey. It was a merchant's logic: find the gap, fill it, repeat. Five generations later, the Serena family manages a portfolio of more than a million bottles a year, their labels distributed across international markets from the same Conegliano hills where Pietro first loaded his carts.

From the atlas

Vinicola Serena

At A Glance

The Producer

Vinicola Serena, now trading as Serena Wines 1881, is a large-scale Prosecco producer near Conegliano in the Veneto. Pietro Serena did not begin as an estate bottler. In 1881, he started selling wine from the Prosecco hills north into the Cadore, the mountain territory above Treviso, loaded into wooden barrels and carried to communities without easy access to the vineyards. That commercial logic shaped the house from the start: wine made to travel, made to reach people.

Five generations carried the business forward. Today, fourth-generation Giorgio Serena and his son Luca hold the named leadership roles. In 2020, Casa Vinicola Botter acquired the company, folding it into a combined group that now operates more than a dozen wineries and roughly 1,500 hectares of vineyards across Italy. The Serena family name and its generational continuity remain on the label; the operating context is now that of a major Italian wine group.

Annual production exceeds one million bottles, distributed across international markets under the Serenello and Terra Serena brands.

Place

Conegliano sits at the southern edge of the hills that run between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, two towns in the Treviso province of Veneto. This corridor of steep, terraced slopes, planted almost entirely to Glera, produces Prosecco under the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Superiore DOCG, the more geographically restricted and hillside-specific designation. Below the hills, the broader Prosecco DOC extends across the flatlands of Veneto and into Friuli, covering a much larger area with less topographic variation.

In 2019, the Conegliano Valdobbiadene landscape was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a recognition of the terraced hillside vineyards and the centuries-old farming culture that shaped them. For Vinicola Serena, whose vineyards fall within this zone, the designation appears on labels and promotional materials as a provenance marker.

The geography affects what Prosecco tastes like. Hillside DOCG vineyards tend to produce Glera with more pronounced acidity and aromatic lift than the flatter DOC ground below.

Soil And Site

The hills around Conegliano are composed of moraine and clay-limestone soils laid down by glacial movement and river action. The terraced slopes face southeast to southwest, giving Glera good sun exposure through the growing season without extreme heat accumulation. Altitude varies across the DOCG zone, with some parcels reaching above 300 metres. These conditions allow Glera to retain the bright acidity that drives Prosecco's freshness in the glass.

No organic, biodynamic or certified sustainability status is confirmed for Vinicola Serena's vineyards.

Story

Pietro Serena's 1881 trade route into the Cadore was a distribution business, not a wine estate. He sourced from the Prosecco hills, filled barrels, and drove them north into mountain communities. For much of the following century, the Serena name was a commercial wine operation rather than a single-domaine producer.

The shift toward branded estate production came gradually through successive generations, culminating in a portfolio that grew to include eight Italian wine and Prosecco brands and a Champagne operation before 2020. That year, Casa Vinicola Botter acquired Serena Wines, creating one of the largest wine companies in Italy by volume. The Serena family retained named leadership positions within the combined group. The Serenello and Terra Serena labels continued; the company's scale increased further.

The Ville d'Arfanta estate, located in the Prosecco hills, now operates as a hospitality property offering tastings and overnight stays, connecting the commercial wine business to the landscape that Pietro Serena first sourced from in 1881.

Vineyards And Cellar

Prosecco is produced via the Charmat method, also called the Martinotti method in Italy. After primary fermentation, the wine undergoes secondary fermentation in large pressurised stainless steel tanks rather than in individual bottles. This approach preserves the fresh fruit character of Glera, producing a wine with delicate mousse, low tannin, and aromatic clarity. It is faster and less labour-intensive than the traditional method used in Champagne, which is why Prosecco can be made at volume without losing its primary fruit profile.

Glera is harvested at a point when acidity is still high and sugars are moderate. The grape's natural aromatic compounds, including those that give Prosecco its characteristic pear and floral notes, are sensitive to heat and oxidation, which is why cold tank fermentation is the standard approach for preserving them.

No specific cellar practices beyond the Charmat method are confirmed for Vinicola Serena.

Wines

The house produces Prosecco at two appellation levels. The Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG covers hillside production from the corridor between the two towns; the Prosecco DOC is a broader designation covering flatter ground across Veneto and Friuli. Both levels appear in the Serena portfolio.

The two primary brands are Serenello and Terra Serena. Terra Serena Prosecco Extra Dry is the best-documented bottle: it carries a small amount of residual sweetness and a fruity aromatic profile built around pear, honeydew melon, gooseberry and citrus. In Prosecco labelling, Extra Dry is not the driest style: it sits between Brut (drier) and Dry (sweeter), with dosage levels between 12 and 17 grams per litre of residual sugar. The sweetness is noticeable but not heavy, and the fruit character is light and direct.

Serenello forms the second primary brand. No confirmed tasting descriptors for the Serenello range are available. The house also produces traditional Venetian white and red still wines under IGT and DOC designations, secondary in scale and profile to the Prosecco output.

In The Glass

Terra Serena Prosecco Extra Dry opens with a pale straw colour and a light, continuous mousse. The nose is soft and aromatic: pear and honeydew melon come forward first, followed by a green-fruited note of gooseberry and a thread of citrus peel. There is no oak character; the aromas are clean and primary, which is what the Charmat method preserves.

In the mouth, the wine is light-bodied with a gentle entry. The small amount of residual sweetness rounds the fruit without making the wine feel sweet in an obvious way. Acidity keeps the finish fresh rather than flat. Glera's natural aromatic quality carries through from nose to palate: this is not a wine of weight or length, but of aromatic immediacy and easy drinkability. The mousse is soft, the finish short and clean.

The DOCG hillside fruit shows slightly more defined acidity and aromatic lift than broader DOC Prosecco, though both sit firmly in the light, fresh, fruit-forward category.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Terra Serena Prosecco Extra Dry. It is a Glera-based sparkling wine from the Prosecco DOC, made by Charmat method, with a small amount of residual sweetness and aromatic notes of pear, honeydew melon, gooseberry and citrus. The mousse is light and the body is lean. It is made to be drunk soon after release, cold, without food or with light starters, and it delivers exactly what it promises: a fresh, fruit-forward glass with no complications. It is the right first bottle because it is the only bottle in the range with confirmed tasting character.

Anecdote

Pietro Serena did not start with a cellar or a vineyard. In 1881, he filled wooden barrels with wine from the hills around Conegliano and drove them north into the Cadore, the mountainous stretch of territory above Treviso where the Dolomites begin to close off the horizon. The communities up there had no easy route to the winegrowing country below, and Pietro had the barrels and the willingness to make the journey. It was a merchant's logic, not a winemaker's: find the gap, fill it, repeat. Five generations later, the Serena family manages a portfolio of more than a million bottles a year, their labels distributed across international markets from the same Conegliano hills where Pietro first loaded his carts.

Final Word

Vinicola Serena is a commercial Prosecco house with genuine historical roots. Pietro Serena's 1881 barrel route to the Cadore is a real founding story, not a marketing construction, and the five-generation continuity of the family through a 2020 acquisition into a major Italian wine group is an unusual kind of endurance. The wine is made for broad appeal: light, aromatic, fresh, and uncomplicated. Anyone looking for artisan-scale production or vineyard-specific wines will not find them here. Anyone looking for a well-made, correctly priced Prosecco from a house with 145 years of commercial history will.

Sources

Open Vinicola Serena in the interactive map →