Masottina Collezione 96 Prosecco Extra Dry
£10.45
The wine
Pale straw enlivened by a fine, lingering perlage. The aromatic intensity gives lemon, grapefruit and lime, making way for an end note of apple and pear. Fresh and lively, with those citrus and ripe fruit notes returning through a soft, harmonious finish.
Extra Dry is, confusingly, sweeter than Brut, permitting 12 to 17 grams of residual sugar per litre. It is the traditional Prosecco style and the one most Italians drink: the touch of sugar rounds out Glera's naturally brisk acidity and carries its pear and white-flower character.
The producer
Masottina
View all Masottina winesThe Dal Bianco family have made wine since 1946, when grandfather Epifanio bought the five-hectare Ai Palazzi estate at Gorgo al Monticano. Restoring the manor house above the vineyard uncovered an old inscription reading Casa Masottina, and the name stuck.
Three generations on, the wines come from nearly 300 hectares across the Conegliano Valdobbiadene hills and the wider Veneto. Those hills were added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2019 for their cultural landscape: steep, narrow ridges worked by hand because no machine can reach them, with vineyards, woodland and small settlements interleaved.
The family were among the pioneers of Rive bottlings, the Prosecco equivalent of a single-vineyard wine. Rive means steep hillside in the local dialect, and only 43 of them are recognised; the fruit must come from that named hill alone, be hand-harvested and carry a vintage. Masottina's Rive di Ogliano wines are among the most respected examples, and they make an unusually clear case that Prosecco can express site.
