GUSTARE | TASTE Cartizze
Cartizze has always been considered the pinnacle of Conegliano Valdobbiadene production, though not in any of the established uses of the term. Cartizze is an icon, a standard-bearer of the whole region. And all it takes to understand why is a visit. The first time I came here, the rough rows of gnarly vines and dramatic beauty of the surrounding landscape literally took my breath away. The vineyard’s 107-hectares occupy an entire southwest-facing hillside that tumbles from its summit in the hamlet of Santo Stefano vertiginously down in a steep patchwork of tiny
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Alan Tardi
terraced parcels to the Piave River valley. Here some 140 proprietors work their small family
Alan Tardi è uno scrittore enogastronomico freelance che vive nel borgo di Castiglione Falletto nella zona del Barolo, ma che visita spesso il territorio del Conegliano Valdobbiadene. Il suo libro “Romancing the Vine” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006) è stato premiato col James Beard Award per la migliore pubblicazione sui vini e spiriti del 2006 e ha vinto anche un Gourmand World Cookbook Award. E' stato nominato Ambasciatore del Conegliano Valdobbiadene in USA.
plots by hand as they have for generations. Many of the vines are ancient and many areas are
Alan Tardi is a freelance wine and food writer who lives in the Barolo village of Castiglione Falletto and is a frequent visitor to Conegliano Valdobbiadene. His book, “Romancing the Vine” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006), received a James Beard Award for Best Wine & Spirits Book of 2006 and a Gourmand World Cookbook Award. He's ambassador of Prosecco in the US
parts of the region, resulting in grapes with special character and exceptional ripeness. In the
extremely steep and difficult to access, making harvest a heroic and acrobatic feat. Why do they bother? “Because it is what we do; it is what we have always done and, God willing, what we will continue to do,” one farmer told me. “The earth here is good,” he added, which is an understatement. Cartizze is the most expensive vineyard property in Italy and among the most expensive in the world. Due to its unique terroir, harvest takes place later here than in most other olden days, ripeness (which means more sugar in the grapes and more sweetness and alcohol in the wine) was highly prized, especially in this northern territory where low temperatures during harvest often led to under-ripe grapes and incomplete fermentation. Because of its superior ripeness, Cartizze came to be associated with sweet wines, and most producers today continue