A FAMILY EXPERIENCE

History and vineyards

Our family has been cultivating vineyards since the early twentieth century, when it all began with great-grandfather Serafino. Beginning in 1986, we went from cultivating vineyards through a transition to direct production and the sparkling process of wine made with our grapes.
Today our very own vineyards cover 36 hectares, stretching out over the hills and slopes best suited to this cultivation in the towns of the Conegliano Valdobbiabene DOCG Prosecco Superiore production zone: Saccol (Valdobbiadene), San Pietro di Feletto, Solighetto, Collalto and Farra di Soligo. In particular there are two vineyards worthy of note: one for its historic value, the other for its sentimental value. The first is located in Solighetto di Pieve di Soligo and is one of the oldest vineyards owned by the Count Marco Giulio Balbi Valier, the man who, by making the first selection of varieties, succeeded in isolating the Prosecco Balbi, a clone of the Glera vine on which the production of the Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG Prosecco Superiore territory is still founded to this very day.
The second vineyard, or the “Col del Sas”, situated on the hill of the same name in the town of Valdobbiadene, is part of our inheritance; it is the symbol of our family history, and the origin of our brand, an enduring link between our family and these lands: SPAGNOL COL DEL SAS

People
The vineyards have always been managed and worked by our nuclear family: father Orazio, mother Loreta and their sons, Stefano, Marco, Alberto and Mattia. More specifically, Orazio and Alberto, together with a team of agronomists, supervise the agricultural activities, all done manually, from the management of the plants to the harvest; while Stefano and Marco, as oenologists, deal with the wine-making process of the company wine cellars.
Over time, the “famiglia” has grown to embrace the arrival of talented collaborators for working in the vineyards (7 individuals), and for the administrative and sales offices (4 individuals).
In brief, our company covers all aspects of the production process.

Production
We produce Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG exclusively from grapes cultivated in our very own vineyards: all the lands and vineyards, every vine and every single cluster of grapes are monitored, taken care of, and followed along their way to the bottle. We personally carry out all the wine-making procedures, in particular the sparkling process according to the Martinotti Method, the ageing, bottling, and distribution, for which we implement vehicles equipped with suitable refrigeration systems. Over recent years we have also designed and constructed a system for optimizing energy resources produced and used by our cellar, like a biomass system, fuelled by agricultural compost. In this way, we rationally manage all the stages of the production process, with a view to achieving the total sustainability of our business in a few years.

Research and innovation
For several years we have been actuating projects and experimentations with the University of Padua, the CRA – Research Centre for vineyard cultivation of Conegliano –  and the Consorzio Tutela del vino Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco with the objective of contributing to the development of sustainable vineyard cultivation on our territory. In this moment we are concentrating on a mass selection process: we recover and select stock of our oldest vines, and from their scions (vine branches) we obtain the plants for new vineyards. We selected this traditional reproduction method because it enables us to bring healthy plants to life, plants that are perfectly suited to our environment and so capable of guaranteeing high-quality grapes that express the character of our territory. Thanks to this project, we also make our own contribution to the conservation and increase of biodiversity.