Col Fondo, sui lieviti.
Col Fondo is the cloudy Prosecco: it referments in the bottle, it isn’t disgorged, and the lees stay at the bottom. It’s the oldest way of making bubbles around here, before the autoclave. On the label the official wording is «rifermentato in bottiglia», refermented in the bottle; in the DOCG it’s called «sui lieviti», on the lees. SERALBA doesn’t make one, but people often ask: here’s what it is.
Valdobbiadene, explained · 5 November 2026 · 3 minutesHow it’s made.
The base wine goes into the bottle in spring with a little sugar and its yeasts, and there it does its second fermentation, closed with a crown cap. The bubbles are born inside the bottle and the yeasts, their work done, settle at the bottom. Nobody removes them. For the DOCG «sui lieviti» the rules are precise: the refermentation starts between 1 March and 30 June after the harvest, and the wine stays on the lees at least ninety days before release.
How to drink it.
Two ways, and they’re suggestions. Clear: the bottle standing up for a few hours, then you pour gently and the lees stay down. Cloudy: you turn the bottle upside down before opening, and the wine turns hazy, rougher, more bread. Many prefer it that way. Cold, in a simple glass: it isn’t a wine for ceremonies.
Why people like it now.
It came back with «natural» and artisanal wines: few things added, a lot of work in the vineyard, a taste that changes from bottle to bottle. Since 2013 there’s also an association, ColFondo Agricolo, with about twenty wineries from the area. It used to be the farmers' wine, drunk at the osteria; today you find it on restaurant lists.
Col Fondo and Martinotti.
They’re the two roads to bubbles here. The autoclave gives a clean, clear wine with the grape’s aromas up front: it’s the Prosecco Superiore you know, and SERALBA’s. The bottle gives a more rustic, lively wine, different every year. There’s no right and wrong: there’s the moment.
How Prosecco Superiore is madeThree quick questions.
Is cloudy Col Fondo a flaw?
No: it’s made that way. The lees at the bottom are the sign that it refermented in the bottle and nobody removed them.
Does it keep for long?
Better drunk young, within a year or two: it’s a fresh wine, not one to age. Somewhere cool, standing or lying down, away from the sun.
Does SERALBA make a Col Fondo?
No. SERALBA Brut and Extra Dry are sparkling wines made in the autoclave. Never say never, but today our wine is that one.
- Production rules of the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG (art. 5 and 7: «sui lieviti») · www.valoritalia.it
- Gambero Rosso · «Prosecco col fondo, chi lo produce» · www.gamberorosso.it