A visit to L’Antica Quercia Prosecco

A wonderful Summer’s afternoon just north of Conegliano in the Prosecco Superiore region was spent at L’Antica Quercia winery and at once you felt at peace with yourself, a calmness came over you and nature felt a priority. Once again the wonderful Prosecco Consortium were my kind guided tour partner for the day and Mr Claudio Francavilla with L’Antica Quercia was one of the wineries they were sure I needed to visit in order to embrace the characters and varied visions of the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG Zone.

L’Antica Quercia’s focus on nature is visible throughout what they do which even includes their website which I found highly engaging and ever so artistic. As you start to walk the grounds you can see a clean focus to how they maintain their vines which neatly stretch out on sloping downward hills that seem to surround the property.

Each vineyard is surrounded by olive trees of which they produce olive oil and the proud standing of two great oak trees are the symbol for the branding of L’Antica Quercia: “The best dreams are born under the shadow of a great tree” being a quotation they use.

Once again, and frequently I hear this, we have a Prosecco Superiore label being produced with the focus on quality over quantity – Achieving the best results from their grapes in tasting experience being far more closer to the heart over monetary profits. Mr Claudio Francavilla proudly walked me through the vineyards and clearly his dreams have all come true now that he is running his winery having previously been in the optical industry – Anyone who visits will undoubtedly understand the pull the winery has on you.

I must also mention that for ten years now L’Antica Quercia has been an organic winery which Mr Claudio Francavilla tells me with a beam in his eyes, here is a man who’s focus is on nature and appreciating what nature gives him enabling him to share his wines with the world. As he said to me “We work with nature which has been here for many, many years and we respect nature as we draw from it fruits – There is only one person that can really determine how we work at L’Antica Quercia and this is him (pointing upwards to the sky)… …“

Now to the tasting of their wines which took place in a delightful converted old oak wine barrel with magnificent views, sheer bliss it was. Sitting with Silvia Benedet from the Prosecco Consortium, we were treated to a tasting of L’Antica Quecia wines which all the Superiore expressed a beautiful creamy and smooth texture and added freshness from the lingering fruits expressed. An interesting Su Alto was also introduced to me, a Giera based wine naturally re-fermented in the bottles with native yeast and the special part is that it is aged at least 4 months at 2,000 metres altitude at the foot of Mount Civetta in the heart of the Dolomites – A wine to try for many reasons!