Tomorrow is the start of National Prosecco week and I always have something in stash to share with you all. Today I’m sharing a bottle of the non-vintage Fratelli Cosmo Cosi E Col Fondo Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG. There is your average mass market Prosecco and then there are those deemed of higher quality from some of the respected appellations like those from Conegliano Valdobbiadene and Asolo.
This Fratelli Cosmo Prosecco is one of the products of the Bellenda winery I’ve covered before. I couldn’t locate exactly what the association is with Fratelli Cosmo and why the wine is named that. What I thought would be interesting to share about this wine is the Col Fondo part of the name listed on the bottle and exactly what that means.
What is Col Fondo?
Here is where your Italian will come in handy if you have some knowledge of Italian grammar. The Italian preposition con, meaning with, and the definite article il, meaning the, are combined to form the word “col”. Fondo translates to bottom, so col fondo equates to “with the bottom”. What does this mean for the wine? Well, there are different methods in which Prosecco can be produced including the most common being the Martinotti or Charmat method that we’ve discussed before. Col Fondo differs from the other Prosecco producing methods because it goes through a secondary fermentation where it doesn’t go through disgorgement. The sediment, or lees, are not removed from the bottle and are left to stay in the bottle or “on the bottom” as the name refers.
You will find Col Fondo only in the production of Prosecco and not all bottles will have it on the label. You may see “rifermentato in bottiglia” that it was refermented in the bottle. Since this is a more natural way to produce Prosecco without the wine being filtered the wine may look cloudy in the glass. They are produced in a frizzante style that have less bubbles than others and will tend to be drier. They also may tend to taste sour or bitter, but not in a negative fashion as you may assume.
The Wine
The Bellenda Fratelli Cosmo NV Cosi E Col Fondo Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG is grown on south and southwest facing slopes on limestone and clay soils with remains of ancient glaciers. The wine was cloudy as expected with a tinge of yellow-greenish color. A soft nose of apples and white peach. Very dry with rather delicate bubbles with notes of apple and lime. Great acidity with minerality showing throughout. ABV 11% SRP $16-20
The Pairing
I’ve been increasing my seafood and white meat in my diet over red meat and have for a long time wanted to prepare fish cakes. After tasting this wine this week I knew it was time to try them out. This wine seems like it gravitates well to seafood so it seemed like a natural pairing. Although wine is always hard to pair with asparagus I focused on tasting it with the fish cakes instead and it was quite the delight!
Check out some of my older postings on some of the Prosecco appellations of northern Italy.
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