The estate of Antonella and Ersiliana – the two daughters of Livio Bronca – is by far one of the smallest in the wine region, and almost exclusively ‘top shelf’ sparkling wines are made in the cellar. They harvest from their own 20 hectares, and they neither buy in nor sell grapes. All fruit comes from high areas, from the hillsides between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene. In the early years, only Col Fondo (i.e. bottle-fermented, un-disgorged prosecco) was made at the winery, but since 2002 all attention has been focused on the different characters of the different vineyards. Sorelle Bronca became legendary with the Particella selections, which laid the foundations of the single-vineyard prosecco category, even before the wine region regulations were put in place.

It’s not by accident that the wine from parcel 68, which founded the Particella series, is bottled separately: the crop comes from old vines grown on a slope with a 60% gradient. Thanks to the several months of ageing on lees, it’s much more complex and structured than the average prosecco, and among the usual notes only almond can be picked up, otherwise it’s closer to traditional method sparkling wines with its creamy, biscuity and nutmeg notes. It’s serious and dry.

In terms of its making, Particella is a rarity in the wine region. Apart from a little sulphur, no added substances are used during the vinification, the first fermentation starts spontaneously, and there’s no second fermentation. Typically for the Asti method, the fermenting base wine is cooled when the desired sugar content is reached, the valves of the pressure-resistant tanks are closed, so that bubbles of the first fermentation and most of the original flavours of the place of growth are kept. The method is risky, the outcome is distinctive.