WineCountry.it - Veneto Wine Region Italy

Biasiotto – Sparkling and DOC Wines
Loris Scagliarini - November 1, 2004

November 2004 – The Company of the Month selected for November 2004 is the Azienda Vitivinicola Biasiotto from Vas, in Belluno province, just a few miles from world famous Valdobbiadene wine producing area. We visited the winery on a recent trip to Italy and were very impressed by the wines that we tasted there.

We arrived in the small municipality of Vas, surrounded by majestic Alpine peaks on a late September morning, just a few days before harvest which, this year in Italy, is promising to produce exceptional wines. The sky is deep blue. Typical mountain houses with thick, rock walls and small balconies and terraces aflame with beautiful red geraniums in full bloom ring the small town square.

The naturally cooled iron vats. The ice-cold Alpine water is forced to the top of the vat by automatically activated pumps to keep the temperature within the appropriate levels.

Signor Luigi Biasiotto welcomes us and, proudly, takes us immediately on a tour of the winery. He shows us the whole production chain, from grape crushing to fermentation and aging facilities. Finally, he points out the bottling, labeling and packaging area where bottles are put into either six or twelve bottle cases, according to the wine type.

Prosecco Spumante Extra-Dry Andrea Biasiotto

Cabernet Spumante Demi-Sec

Cabernet Franc Riserva Friuli DOC Grave

The aging iron vats used for the Prosecco wine are outside in a protected area and are naturally cooled by a pump system that forces the Alpine water to run down from the top of the vat, wrapping it in an ice-cold sheet of water that keeps the temperature naturally at the desired level by switching itself on and off automatically.

Dottor Andrea Biasiotto, Luigi's son and current company manager, in addition to being the mayor of Vas, joins us at the end of our tour and opens a bottle of Prosecco Spumante Extra-Dry, which carries his own name, Andrea Biasiotto. The inviting olfactory sensations anticipate the typical Prosecco bouquet. It is very elegant and pleasant to the palate, perfect as an aperitif, but it could easily be paired successfully with hors d'oeuvres and delicate seafood recipes.

Later on, at lunch at the only trattoria in town facing the small piazza, we are delighted by the superb Cabernet Franc Riserva Friuli DOC Grave. The velvety austerity and the intense, round sapidity of this wine are the perfect counterpoint to the delicious pappardelle (kind of wide tagliatelle, or linguini) with either red radicchio or venison ragu, as well as to the flavorful venison cacciatora style.

After lunch we walk back to the winery which is close by. We breathe with pleasure the crisp Alpine air and let our gaze wander along the glorious mountain peaks that appear to reach up to the sky. Before leaving, Andrea Biasiotto offers us a taste of a new product from a labelless bottle. Is the Passito di Prosecco, that is still aging and is not yet available to the public, in fact, it will be released for the first time in 2005 and, we are willing to bet, will be pretty successful.

The full-flavored Passito is the perfect complement to the tasty repast and the courteous , friendly hospitality of the Biasiotto family who, for four generations now has been producing quality sparkling and other DOC wines, applying cutting edge technologies without ever ever forgetting the lessons learn from centuries-old traditions.

Biasiotto Wines: