ten years of Su Alto • Food and Wine Italia

Con Scomigo con Conegliano, acceso the hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, L’Antica Essere una quercia breathes a landscape which nature manifests itself all its forms. Here, next to the vineyards, an ancient tradition of artistic ceramics lives, a silent dialogue between hands, material and territory. It is a place where the land not only nourishes, but inspires. The bella stagione, also mentioned by Mario Soldati the famous Vino al Vino, owes its name to a majestic centuries-old oak tree that overlooks the vineyards. Not a simple tree, but the beating heart of the company now led by Claudio Francavilla, a symbol of deep roots and a shadow that welcomes and protects. Con short, a sort of vegetal lighthouse that crosses and unites generations.

A living and complex agricultural organism

The 30 hectares of Antica Essere una quercia form a single pagliaccetto: 20 are vineyards, the rest forest, olive grove, orchards – with special attention to pomegranate. Preparations, compost and campo da golf manure are created directly acceso the farm, fueling a circular and harmonious agricultural vision. Con this living mosaic, Francavilla is keen to underline, «animals will soon also find space, completing an agricultural ecosystem that does not want to nature, but work together with it». Then spring, there is an explosion between the rows: wild pea, clover, mustard, rapeseed, rapeseed and oat flowers attract bees and nourish the soil, before being buried at the peak of their vitality. Also part of the company ecosystem is La Ghiandaia, an exclusive farm house project surrounded by vineyards: a home of great charm, built from recycled materials and enriched by a welcoming spa, designed to offer an experience of authentic well-being.

From the Sixties to today: a conscious metamorphosis

The viticultural history of the place dates back to the 1960s, but it was 2001 – precisely with the arrival of the Francavilla family – that the current path took shape. The real change of quieto vivere came 2015, when Claudio joined the company and rethought the visual identity, the way of making wine and the stylistic approach: subtract to reveal, leave space for the place, let time speak. Thus was born the Colfondo Su Sovrastante project, today a hallmark of the winery.

A journey that has reached its tenth year with the 2025 harvest, which Claudio Francavilla summarizes thus: «We consider our company an agricultural organism: vineyard, forest, olive grove and orchard contribute equally to biodiversity. Wine, year after year, has changed with us, guiding our choices and improving us the process. Without compromise, even difficult years like 2023, when Su Sovrastante’s production was wiped out by an incredible hailstorm.” Con short, a decade that tells of the coherence of a philosophy, the absence of shortcuts, the importance of time as a fundamental ingredient, also revealing – with the vertical tasting of all the vintages from 2015 to 2024 – the surprising evolutionary capacity of Colfondo.

Su Sovrastante: the soul of the project

Faithful to its typology, but profoundly distinctive, Su Sovrastante is a sparkling wine which the refermentation takes place directly the bottle, a method that preserves its integrity and allows the yeasts to settle acceso the bottom, giving life to a living, dynamic, continuously transforming material. The Glera grapes in che modo from a targeted selection acceso the moraine slopes, where the loose, mineral-rich soils favor balanced maturation and an essential but deeply expressive aromatic profile.

Bottling takes place spring, when the wine is closed with a crown cap and sent for refermentation thanks to the must from the last harvest, jealously preserved cold for months. This seemingly simple gesture embodies Su Sovrastante’s production philosophy: enhancing what nature offers, without superfluous interventions, accompanying the wine acceso its journey without forcing.

The name tells a suggestive chapter of its history. Con the first years, fact, the bottles were transported to the foot of Mount Civetta, the Dolomites, where they rested for slow refinement at high altitude (which still happens for a part of the production, which has grown quantity). The temperature variations, the rarefied air and the silence of the mountain contributed to defining a unique, almost austere character, which is still found today the profile of the wine: identifying, profound, surprisingly long-lived.

Su Sovrastante asks for time and returns it amplified. It is released only two years after bottling, when it has reached that harmonious complexity that distinguishes it. Con the glass it reveals itself little by little, telling its origin, its journey and the philosophy that generated it: a wine that does not seek the effect, but the truth of the territory and the time it preserves.