This New Year’s Day we celebrated the start of a new year with a bottle of Loredan Garparini’s Asolo Prosecco Superiore DOCG. The winery is located in the hills of Treviso in the Veneto. The glera used to make their prosecco comes from the Giavera del Montello estate.

Giancarlo Palla who today works with his two sons was among the first to look at this area as one for sparkling wines. As far back as the 1970s he produced Prosecco in the Montello area. Asolo received its DOC status in 1977 and became a DOCG in 2009. Venegazzù, where the winery is located, has also been recognized for special consideration as a subzone of the DOCG. Today, the Palla works with his sons, Alberto and Lorenzo.

Asolo is a town located in the Veneto, in the rocky hills south of the Dolomite mountains at the foot of Monte Grappa and west of the Piave river. The wines come from 19 communes that form a crown around the town of Asolo. The area is 20,000 hectares, the Asolo hills, and the Montello plain. Just like in Valdobbiadene, the viticulture in these hills is done by hand and is extreme, also known as heroic viticulture.

The wines are made using the Charmat or tank method also known in Italy as the Martinotti method who discovered this type of fermentation. They make about 20 million bottles a year, a nice almost niche production compared with Prosecco DOC which makes around 700 million bottles a year. Glera, a delicate grape does well in the charmat method which retains its primary fruit aromas.

Asolo received DOCG status in June 2009 and was the very first of the Prosecco denominations to allow an Extra Brut version. The wines of Asolo have been famous since the Venetian republic although the town of Asolo and its wines were known as far back as the Romans and were widely recognized in the Middle Ages.

The area’s soils are deep and rich in organic material. The climate here is influenced by winds that come from the Adriatic sea and the area is blessed with significant thermal excursion. Wines must be made from 85% Glera and the other 15% can be Bianchetta Trevigiana, Verdiso, Perera, and Glera lunga.

The grapes for this Prosecco are from old vines, over 40 years old which is rare for Prosecco. You can tell those when sipping this sparkler which has weight and structure as well as elegance and finesse.

It was a pleasure to drink it today with Dim Sim which is always a treat on New Year’s Day. I love the shrimp dim sim and the pork buns and have since childhood.

I was happy with the pairing of the Prosecco with the shrimp, neither one overpowered the other but were instead rather nicely balanced. Shrimp, like Prosecco, always has a slight undertone of sweetness I find, although neither could be considered sweet. 

Lightless and lift for the palate and the soul was what I was looking for at lunch today and found in this New Year’s Sip. I hope the year brings joy and good tidings for all.