Le Vigne di Alice ‘Osé' Brut Nature Rosato NV
Winemaker: Cinzia Canzian
Grapes: Glera, Marzemino
Soil: Refrontolo vineyard (Marzemino) is planted in reddish ferrite soils, the residue of the degradation of iron-rich rocks. Carpesica vineyard (Glera) is lean, glacial-origin moraine, with abundant rock, dolomia stones.
Winemaking: Organic farming. Trees and other vegetation grow among the vineyard plots. No herbicides or pesticides in the vineyard. All weeding is done by hand. Marzemino and Glera grapes are destemmed and separated then undergo spontaneous primary fermentation. Assemblage follows, after which wine matures on fine lees for 3 months. Secondary fermentation takes place in steel tank (charmat method) with must from the vintage. No dosage.
From the Importer PortoVino: ‘Osé’ is Alice’s non-dosage sparkling rosato with a unique twist: Marzemino! Besides being Mozart’s favorite (“Versa il vino! Eccellente Marzemino!” [2:30-2:50]), Marzemino lends both aromatics and acidity to the Glera in ‘Osé’.
Inspired by memories of her grandmother’s tavern or osteria, where conviviality and wines like A Fondo and Tajad followed, Cinzia Canzian started Alice (the name of her grandmother) in 2004, after an experience of almost two decades working for her husband winery and the Prosecco consortium. Her vision was to bottle an artisanal Prosecco thatʼs spoke of the grapes and soil, but was also bone dry Brut, and fruit from vineyards at the base of the Dolomites near her home. We call it Prosecco for non-Prosecco lovers (a category that includes us). Alice’s Brut style was the first in the Prosecco area to really get the attention of sommeliers and wine lovers looking for something to pair instead of Champagne, and it is still considered one of the best.
The Prosecco DOCG growing area is part of UNESCO’s heritage sites, as rolling green hills of vines make their way to a part of the Alps that’s called the Dolomites. That edge, between green vineyard hills and the pink sheen of the Dolomites, is where Alice holds 12 hectares (9 that are owned by Alice and 3 she rents from her husband who own the Prosecco winery Bellenda). I say all this to underline what a gloriously beautiful place this is to grow the Glera grapes that make Prosecco, and underline how healthy and vibrant with cover crops Alice’s vineyards are. The winery doesn’t use any herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides. Yet, all is not idyllic: the devastating Scale insects here are capable of wiping out entire vineyards. Alice is part of an experimental pilot program with the Università di Padova e Conegliano to introduce the parasitoid Anagyrus pseudococci, and the punk-band sounding predator called Mealybug Destroyer. This is the kind of progressive approach we love, a tethering to tradition but not blinded by what other did before.
Cinzia could have started and stopped exploring at her single-vineyard Brut Nature, that’s been a delicious mainstay of many tables (and countless weddings) for years. Instead, she pushed on to explore different fermentation methods. She says all this parsing has helped her understand even better how to reflect her grape and soil terroir. Cinzia recently added two wines made with secondary fermentation in the bottle: .g (Metodo Classico, or Champagne method) and P.S. (Metodo Integrale; i.e., not disgorged). Rounding things out are two easy going daily drinkers: Tajad, the old-school Prosecco blend from Vittorio Veneto that from local antique varieties, including Glera, that Cinzia’s grandfather made for her grandmother’s osteria in the 50’s, and Osé, a Brut rosé that’s made with the local Marzemino as the added red variety.
We see Alice as a winery that stuck to its guns to make natural Brut style, and called into question what ‘traditional’ Prosecco from the 50’s and 60’s really meant, when it would have been easy to have just gone with the Extra-Dry sweet-money flow. For that, we are grateful, and the reason we’ve been drinking, selling, and celebrating with these wines for years.
Winemaker: Cinzia Canzian
Grapes: Glera, Marzemino
Soil: Refrontolo vineyard (Marzemino) is planted in reddish ferrite soils, the residue of the degradation of iron-rich rocks. Carpesica vineyard (Glera) is lean, glacial-origin moraine, with abundant rock, dolomia stones.
Winemaking: Organic farming. Trees and other vegetation grow among the vineyard plots. No herbicides or pesticides in the vineyard. All weeding is done by hand. Marzemino and Glera grapes are destemmed and separated then undergo spontaneous primary fermentation. Assemblage follows, after which wine matures on fine lees for 3 months. Secondary fermentation takes place in steel tank (charmat method) with must from the vintage. No dosage.
From the Importer PortoVino: ‘Osé’ is Alice’s non-dosage sparkling rosato with a unique twist: Marzemino! Besides being Mozart’s favorite (“Versa il vino! Eccellente Marzemino!” [2:30-2:50]), Marzemino lends both aromatics and acidity to the Glera in ‘Osé’.
Inspired by memories of her grandmother’s tavern or osteria, where conviviality and wines like A Fondo and Tajad followed, Cinzia Canzian started Alice (the name of her grandmother) in 2004, after an experience of almost two decades working for her husband winery and the Prosecco consortium. Her vision was to bottle an artisanal Prosecco thatʼs spoke of the grapes and soil, but was also bone dry Brut, and fruit from vineyards at the base of the Dolomites near her home. We call it Prosecco for non-Prosecco lovers (a category that includes us). Alice’s Brut style was the first in the Prosecco area to really get the attention of sommeliers and wine lovers looking for something to pair instead of Champagne, and it is still considered one of the best.
The Prosecco DOCG growing area is part of UNESCO’s heritage sites, as rolling green hills of vines make their way to a part of the Alps that’s called the Dolomites. That edge, between green vineyard hills and the pink sheen of the Dolomites, is where Alice holds 12 hectares (9 that are owned by Alice and 3 she rents from her husband who own the Prosecco winery Bellenda). I say all this to underline what a gloriously beautiful place this is to grow the Glera grapes that make Prosecco, and underline how healthy and vibrant with cover crops Alice’s vineyards are. The winery doesn’t use any herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides. Yet, all is not idyllic: the devastating Scale insects here are capable of wiping out entire vineyards. Alice is part of an experimental pilot program with the Università di Padova e Conegliano to introduce the parasitoid Anagyrus pseudococci, and the punk-band sounding predator called Mealybug Destroyer. This is the kind of progressive approach we love, a tethering to tradition but not blinded by what other did before.
Cinzia could have started and stopped exploring at her single-vineyard Brut Nature, that’s been a delicious mainstay of many tables (and countless weddings) for years. Instead, she pushed on to explore different fermentation methods. She says all this parsing has helped her understand even better how to reflect her grape and soil terroir. Cinzia recently added two wines made with secondary fermentation in the bottle: .g (Metodo Classico, or Champagne method) and P.S. (Metodo Integrale; i.e., not disgorged). Rounding things out are two easy going daily drinkers: Tajad, the old-school Prosecco blend from Vittorio Veneto that from local antique varieties, including Glera, that Cinzia’s grandfather made for her grandmother’s osteria in the 50’s, and Osé, a Brut rosé that’s made with the local Marzemino as the added red variety.
We see Alice as a winery that stuck to its guns to make natural Brut style, and called into question what ‘traditional’ Prosecco from the 50’s and 60’s really meant, when it would have been easy to have just gone with the Extra-Dry sweet-money flow. For that, we are grateful, and the reason we’ve been drinking, selling, and celebrating with these wines for years.
Winemaker: Cinzia Canzian
Grapes: Glera, Marzemino
Soil: Refrontolo vineyard (Marzemino) is planted in reddish ferrite soils, the residue of the degradation of iron-rich rocks. Carpesica vineyard (Glera) is lean, glacial-origin moraine, with abundant rock, dolomia stones.
Winemaking: Organic farming. Trees and other vegetation grow among the vineyard plots. No herbicides or pesticides in the vineyard. All weeding is done by hand. Marzemino and Glera grapes are destemmed and separated then undergo spontaneous primary fermentation. Assemblage follows, after which wine matures on fine lees for 3 months. Secondary fermentation takes place in steel tank (charmat method) with must from the vintage. No dosage.
From the Importer PortoVino: ‘Osé’ is Alice’s non-dosage sparkling rosato with a unique twist: Marzemino! Besides being Mozart’s favorite (“Versa il vino! Eccellente Marzemino!” [2:30-2:50]), Marzemino lends both aromatics and acidity to the Glera in ‘Osé’.
Inspired by memories of her grandmother’s tavern or osteria, where conviviality and wines like A Fondo and Tajad followed, Cinzia Canzian started Alice (the name of her grandmother) in 2004, after an experience of almost two decades working for her husband winery and the Prosecco consortium. Her vision was to bottle an artisanal Prosecco thatʼs spoke of the grapes and soil, but was also bone dry Brut, and fruit from vineyards at the base of the Dolomites near her home. We call it Prosecco for non-Prosecco lovers (a category that includes us). Alice’s Brut style was the first in the Prosecco area to really get the attention of sommeliers and wine lovers looking for something to pair instead of Champagne, and it is still considered one of the best.
The Prosecco DOCG growing area is part of UNESCO’s heritage sites, as rolling green hills of vines make their way to a part of the Alps that’s called the Dolomites. That edge, between green vineyard hills and the pink sheen of the Dolomites, is where Alice holds 12 hectares (9 that are owned by Alice and 3 she rents from her husband who own the Prosecco winery Bellenda). I say all this to underline what a gloriously beautiful place this is to grow the Glera grapes that make Prosecco, and underline how healthy and vibrant with cover crops Alice’s vineyards are. The winery doesn’t use any herbicides, fungicides, or pesticides. Yet, all is not idyllic: the devastating Scale insects here are capable of wiping out entire vineyards. Alice is part of an experimental pilot program with the Università di Padova e Conegliano to introduce the parasitoid Anagyrus pseudococci, and the punk-band sounding predator called Mealybug Destroyer. This is the kind of progressive approach we love, a tethering to tradition but not blinded by what other did before.
Cinzia could have started and stopped exploring at her single-vineyard Brut Nature, that’s been a delicious mainstay of many tables (and countless weddings) for years. Instead, she pushed on to explore different fermentation methods. She says all this parsing has helped her understand even better how to reflect her grape and soil terroir. Cinzia recently added two wines made with secondary fermentation in the bottle: .g (Metodo Classico, or Champagne method) and P.S. (Metodo Integrale; i.e., not disgorged). Rounding things out are two easy going daily drinkers: Tajad, the old-school Prosecco blend from Vittorio Veneto that from local antique varieties, including Glera, that Cinzia’s grandfather made for her grandmother’s osteria in the 50’s, and Osé, a Brut rosé that’s made with the local Marzemino as the added red variety.
We see Alice as a winery that stuck to its guns to make natural Brut style, and called into question what ‘traditional’ Prosecco from the 50’s and 60’s really meant, when it would have been easy to have just gone with the Extra-Dry sweet-money flow. For that, we are grateful, and the reason we’ve been drinking, selling, and celebrating with these wines for years.