Memorial Day is around the corner. The air is warm, the trees are green, and another summer in Southwest Michigan is just about here. The wine for the moment: Prosecco.
Prosecco isn’t trying to be Champagne — and that distinction is the whole point. Champagne is about complexity: second fermentation in the bottle, long aging on the lees, the toasty richness that comes from yeast and time. Prosecco is the opposite philosophy: the grape is the main event. Talk to a winemaker who makes both styles and you’ll hear it put something like this — Prosecco should taste like it just came from the vineyard. Meant to be ethereal, not grounded. If what you’ve known of Prosecco is something cheap and sweet by the case at the grocery store, that’s not Prosecco doing what it’s supposed to do. This month’s three wines are Prosecco done right.
Prosecco comes from the hills of Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia in northeastern Italy, made primarily from the Glera grape. At its best — when the farming is serious and yields are kept low — it’s floral, crisp, sometimes mineral, sometimes wildly savory. The DOCG designation, like the one on our Borgoluce, marks the most prestigious tier: steep hillside vineyards in Valdobbiadene, hand-tended on slopes too steep for machines. But great Prosecco is being made beyond those hills too, by producers who care deeply about their fruit — which is where our other two wines come in.
Two of this month’s wines are made by the Charmat method — second fermentation in pressurized stainless steel rather than in the bottle. Far from a shortcut, Charmat is the method that fits Prosecco’s philosophy: it preserves Glera’s freshness and floral character, keeping the grape in the foreground. The third wine takes a different path: col fondo, or “with the bottom” — a traditional method where the wine referments in the bottle on its lees and is released unfiltered, never disgorged. Cloudy, complex, a little wild, it’s how Prosecco was made before industrialization took over, and it’s having a well-deserved revival.
We’re featuring three this month — one from the DOCG hills of Valdobbiadene, one col fondo from Treviso, and one brut from Friuli. Each is a reminder of what Prosecco can be when it’s grown and made with care. Pour them cold, drink them outside, and find something to celebrate — because the moment you pop the cork is the celebration.
Cheers,
P. + E. Mullins
Borgoluce Prosecco Superiore Valdobbiadene DOCG Brut NV
Veneto, Italy
The Collalto family has farmed the hills north of Venice for over a thousand years — the original 2,500-acre estate was granted to their ancestor Rambaldo by the Italian King Berengario II in 958 A.D., and it has passed down through the family ever since. Borgoluce is their wine estate, where 240 acres of vineyards sit within the Valdobbiadene DOCG zone, the most prestigious appellation in all of Prosecco country.
The vineyards climb between 650 and 985 feet above sea level, with exposures that catch morning light from the east. Soils of calcium carbonate, clay, and iron give the wines their structure and minerality. Vines are trained using the traditional double-arched cane and Sylvoz methods, and hand-tended on slopes too steep for machines. This is farming as it has always been done here: patient, tied to the land, and answerable to history.
In the glass, it pours a pale straw yellow with a fine, persistent bead — tiny bubbles that rise slowly and last. On the nose, it opens with yellow apple and ripe pear, then drifts into something more delicate: wisteria and wildflowers, fresh and almost ethereal. The palate delivers on the promise — fresh, fruity, and silky, with richness cut clean by a bright, mouthwatering tanginess that keeps you coming back.
2023 Massimo Coletti Phoja Prosecco di Treviso Frizzante
Veneto, Italy
Treviso sits just east of the celebrated Conegliano hills, and for most of the last century it was better known for quantity than quality. The cooperatives that dominated the region prioritized volume, and one of the traditions that quietly vanished in the process was col fondo — the old practice of letting Prosecco referment in the bottle on its own lees, released unfiltered and cloudy. It’s how the wine was made here for generations before industrial production took over.
Massimo Coletti’s family has worked the same hillside parcels in Treviso for four generations. For years they did what most small growers did — sold their fruit to the co-ops and kept a little back to make wine for themselves, the old way, col fondo. Massimo, the fourth generation, is the one who decided the rest of the world should get to taste it. He and his partner, Laure, began bottling commercially in the early 2010s, and he’s helmed the estate full-time since 2019.
Massimo brings serious credentials — trained in Italy and seasoned in French cellars — but the real work happens in the vineyard. Farming is organic, trending biodynamic, with harvesting done entirely by hand. Total production across all his wines is tiny, around 35,000 bottles. Phoja itself comes from a single parcel less than two acres in size, planted over clay with vines around 20 years old.
This is col fondo Prosecco — bottle-refermented on its lees, never disgorged, and released with a natural haze. Pour it gently to leave the sediment behind or tip the bottle before opening to wake it up. Either way, what you’ll find is something completely unlike the Prosecco you thought you knew. Juicy and bright, with Glera’s characteristic freshness intact, but there’s depth and texture here too — a savory, almost earthy edge from the lees contact, with low, gentle effervescence that makes it feel more like a wine and less like a sparkler. What arrives in your hands is alive, honest, and a little wild in the best possible way.
Sorgente Prosecco Brut NV
Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy
Sorgente means “spring” in Italian, and the name comes literally from the water source that runs alongside these vineyards in Friuli-Venezia Giulia. It’s a fitting image for a wine with this much freshness. The site itself is tucked into a sweet spot between climates — cool mountain air drifting down from the Alps to the north, a maritime softness coming up from the Adriatic to the south — with the vines rooted in alluvial limestone and river sediment that keeps the wines taut and mineral.
Sorgente is a private-label project, born when Ted Vance of The Source Imports approached an established Friuli estate about making Prosecco to the level of rigor he wanted in his portfolio — sold only under this label. The estate prefers to stay anonymous, which is part of the charm. The vineyards are farmed without herbicides or pesticides, and the harvest is done by hand in September — a rarity in the DOC. The selection is unsparing: only the heart of each press makes the wine, with more than 60% of the base juice sold off as bulk. Just 40% of what comes off their six hectares makes it into the bottle.
In the glass: bright and clear, with clean effervescence and real energy. On the nose, fresh citrus, white peach, and a hint of almond blossom. The palate is lean and direct, with brisk acidity and a dry finish that leaves you feeling refreshed rather than sugared up. A straight-shooting Prosecco — honest, food-friendly, and ready for wherever summer takes you.
