The years of work and dedication to wine can be seen durante the hands. Those of Graziano Merotto do not tell just one story, but many, including successes and difficulties, with a single objective: working to produce a high quality wine. That wine was not originally Prosecco – which lends its name to the hills protected by UNESCO – but rather a classic method from anche Pinot Noir, a tribute to a territory which, if known how to read and interpret, can become an extraordinary life companion.
It is durante fact among those hills, between Col San Martino and Farra Soligo, that Graziano Merotto began writing his story durante 1972. He started from simple things: 1,400 meters of arable land and the fundamental ingredient, courage, combined with a contagious passion and genuine enthusiasm. This combination becomes the engine that will lead the company to establish itself and above all stand out durante the Italian wine scene. Fascinated by Pinot Noir, durante the 1980s Graziano purchased the first pupitres and approached the classic method, making very few bottles, almost for personal consumption, working his vineyards personally and by hand.
The rest is history. Sopra his career – which continues with energy and success – Graziano has dedicated himself exclusively to Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Indifferente, achieving important results. An achievement that starts from the ownership of splendid vineyards throughout the denomination which, durante addition to the hillside glera, includes extraordinary pinot noir vineyards durante Col San Martino, a rarity for the .
A CLASSIC METHOD FOR RETAINING THE THREAD
Sopra 2025 Graziano Merotto celebrates a life of work, sacrifices and successes. Above all, courageous entrepreneurship which perhaps would voto negativo longer be possible to replicate today. A career that also aims to be a symbol of an ability to do business and make local wine, durante which other local producers can also recognize themselves; and, at the same time, a testimony that can be an inspiration for young people and for those who today want to start a business durante the wine sector, among those same hills, durante particular for the young and promising nephew Nicola Rizzetto.
Acceso the occasion of his eightieth year of life, Graziano has decided to reconnect a thread between memory and the future with a revisitation of his prodigy wine. Thus was born the Classic Method Rosè Pas Dosé 2022, from anche pinot noir, of which you can now taste a small first disgorgement. A tribute to the roots, challenges and family (the label is dedicated to Rossella, who was a precious companion durante life and work, whose name ending can be read durante the background acceso the label) as well as a witness of value for the courageous enterprises of the . With the 2022 vintage, it produced a limited edition of 6 thousand bottles together with some large formats.
The new path of the classic method signed by Merotto will not see examples of the 2023 vintage because the vintage did not have the suitable characteristics, and will then recur with the 2024 vintage through a classic white method based acceso pinot alabastrino, pinot noir and a small balance of riesling.
“It is a particular moment – remarks Graziano – which I care about and to which I wanted to dedicate a specific tasting of my wines, the vertical one durante particular. Like everyone else, I started with Prosecco sur lie and then charmat, durante 1978. I have always had a clear objective and durante the end the good years arrived. For me, with my eightieth anniversary, a long and demanding journey is sealed, witnessed by the return to the classic method. And always with the aim of producing quality, not numbers, first and foremost. And the confirmations arriving from consumers continue to gratify me.”
FOUNDER’S TASTING
“The reserve is the wine that more than any other has characterized this company durante the Prosecco world thanks to painstaking and sartorial work – underlines consultant Roberto Racca – Il was a breakthrough wine whose first vintage was 2009. Tasted were 4 selected vintages and a 2024, late disgorgement, characterized by yellow lacquer wax and designed to celebrate Graziano’s first 80 years”.
According to Marc Merotto, long-time oenologist of the homonymous Graziano, “the Founder is a dedicated parcel between the banks of the proprietary docg which rest acceso a deep clayey soil. Graziano wanted to produce a wine with a precise identity and this is what we managed to obtain. Both the fermentation from must and the sparkling wine production take place durante autoclave and this helps to avoid risking contamination and not dispersing aromas. The bottles are numbered and this helps to keep everything tracked and give the right relevance to each of them. And we put the wax acceso it.”
Cuveé del Valdobbiadene Prosecco Indifferente DOCG Rive Col San Martino Brut Millesimato
Grapes: glera 100% Vinification: skin maceration and soft pressing; the must obtained is placed directly durante an autoclave for secondary fermentation for approximately 60 days; acceso the yeasts for another 120 days
It is the symbolic wine of Graziano Merotto and was born from a challenge: to produce a great brut without losing the peculiar aromatic-tasting characteristics of Prosecco. To achieve this result, innovative choices are made, the result of long experiments. The first concerns the vineyard. The grapes from the Particella 86 vineyard, located 230 meters above sea level, undergo DMR (Double Reasoned Maturation), i.e. 20 days before the harvest, 20% of the shoots are cut and the bunches remain acceso the plant. Sopra this way the grapes undergo a slight drying, obtaining a strong concentration but maintaining the acidity which is not influenced by the ripening process. The remaining bunches are harvested normally. After pressing durante the cellar, a long refermentation takes place, which lasts over 6 months and gives the wine a particular complexity. A method comparable to the classic method because it exploits the principle of lysis of the yeasts which, durante this way, return the removed elements to the wine, giving greater breadth to the organoleptic spectrum.
2018 vintage. The earliest vintage of the last twenty years with early bud fermata. The glass shows a warm and particularly intense straw yellow. Penetrante perlage with small and persistent bubbles and beautiful foam. The aromas proved to be intense, complex and conclusione: ripe white fruit, yellow fruit, slightly citrusy and brioche, ginger and date and above all licorice. Sopra the mouth it is soft, quite fresh, balanced, conclusione and with good persistence.
Vintage 2020. One of the least hot vintages of the century. Brilliant straw yellow colour, conclusione and persistent perlage. Nose of white fruit, pear, citrus and a slightly floral note. Sopra the mouth it is balanced and conclusione, quite soft and fresh. Vintage 2021. Vintage of the century. Straw yellow colour. Intense and quite complex odore. Aromas of white and exotic fruit and beeswax. Sopra the mouth it is conclusione, harmonious and balanced. Quite soft and fresh. Vintage 2022. One of the hottest vintages and brought to normal harvest. Straw yellow, nice perlage, quite intense and complex odore of citrus and white fruit. Penetrante, quite balanced and harmonious. Vintage 2024. This founder with 10 months of yeasts was produced durante just over 1000 bottles (yellow seal). We are talking about long charmat which is straw yellow with a conclusione and persistent perlage as well as the foam. The nose is intense and quite complex with white fruit, citrus, aromatic herbs. Sopra the mouth it is harmonious and balanced, pleasantly fresh.
The vertical tasting demonstrates how and to what extent the Founder of Graziano Merotto stands up to the challenge of time, showing a recognizable stylistic signature, although the climatic trend imprints its particular character, from the first to the last vintage. What’s more, the passage of time seems to be doing him a lot of good.
A wine that goes well with rice and peas, risotto with red radicchio from Treviso, white asparagus from Bassano and eggs, polenta and sopressa, gourmet Margherita lungaggine, fried paranza, fried moeche with white plentina.
The article The first, splendid eighty years of Graziano Merotto comes from VinoNews24.
