Region & History

Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore is the Prosecco of the hills in the province of Treviso, protected as a DOCG, Italy's highest appellation tier. Fifteen municipalities belong to it, stretching from Conegliano in the east to Valdobbiadene in the west. Between them runs the Strada del Prosecco, a wine road winding through vineyard slopes and villages.

The craft here dates back to the 19th century. According to the house, Antonio Carpenè founded the Carpenè Malvolti winery in Conegliano in 1868, turning the hillside grapes into sparkling wine. In 1876, together with Giovanni Battista Cerletti, he established the Royal School of Viticulture and Oenology, the first of its kind in Italy. In Valdobbiadene sits the house of Mionetto, part of Henkell Freixenet since May 2008.

Appellation protection came in stages: DOC in 1969, DOCG in 2009. The wine-travel guide to Veneto explains how the DOCG came about. What it means here is clearly defined: the grapes must come from the hills of the fifteen municipalities, not from the plain below. On the label, you recognize this origin by the full name Conegliano Valdobbiadene—a plain Prosecco DOC doesn't carry it.

The area is small, the number of players large. In 2024, the consortium counted 8,665 hectares of vines, 3,262 growers cultivating grapes, 427 winemakers, and 217 sparkling wine houses bottling the wine. That works out to a little over two and a half hectares per grower on average. Most growers don't make sparkling wine themselves but supply grapes or wine onward. In 2023, nearly 92 million bottles reached the market.

In 2019, UNESCO added the Colline del Prosecco di Conegliano e Valdobbiadene to its World Heritage list. What's protected isn't a wine but a landscape of narrow hill ridges, grass terraces, and small plots shaped over centuries.