Pale gold color; pear, lemon, apple on the nose; lemon, green apple, tangerine, pear on the palate.
Dry; creamy in the mouth with vibrant balancing acidity and minerality. Persistent perlage, great freshness, fresh bread notes; altogether an outstanding glera-grape sparkling.
Santo Stefano di Valdobbiadene is a small village in the prosecco hill. Le Colture has grown wine vines there since the 1500s under the guidance of the same family. In 1983, Cesare Ruggeri entered the sparkling wine industry armed with, according to the winery website: “know-how spread over a vast array of its own production secrets, both great and small; a deep understanding of its entire growing area and its vineyards; and an inborn sensitivity to the health and well-being of each vineyard.”
Today, Cesare’s children, Silvia, Alberto, and Veronica carry on the family tradition while, according to the website: “bringing to its operation a surge of enthusiasm and the invaluable innovative spirit characteristic of the young generations, without however forgetting love for their own land and respect for winemaking traditions.”
Fagher Le Colture Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Brut DOCG is a quality sparkling prosecco, which means it can compete with much more expensive sparklings from Champagne, but that is not really fair to either. Sparkling prosecco is glera-made sparkling with its own delights. Chardonnay-pinot noir-pinot meunier make a different sparkling wine. Both are wonderful, but you can enjoy three bottles of Prosecco Superiore for the price of entry-level Champagne. Something to think about. Like most sparklings, this will happily pair with wide range of foods—roasted and baked fish, shrimp and shellfish, caviar, fried calamari, oysters, smoked salmon vegetables—including asparagus, hors d’oeuvres, seafood pasta, brie-style cheese. $16
