Colli Berici is a DOC of the Veneto wine region in north-eastern Italy. The title covers a wide range of wine styles including red, white and rose (rosso, bianco and rosato) wines, a foaming Colli Berici Spumante and a portfolio of varietal wines which reaches comfortably into double figures.
The Colli Berici are a group of hills (colli) which rise up from the alluvial plains just south of Vicenza, at the very heart of Veneto. The name is taken from the hills' most notable look-out, Monte Berico, which enjoys an impressive panoramic view over Vicenza city. The geological make-up of the hills suggests they are part of an ancient seabed, due to the prevalence of marine fossils (including corals, algae and urchins) mixed with sand and mud as old as several million years. It also creates a terroir unlike almost any other in Veneto, whose topography is largely flat, and in which the only other hills are part of the lower Alps.
The Colli Berici cover roughly 64 square miles (165 square km) of central Veneto. The most favored vineyard sites are on south-facing slopes with a high proportion of gravels and marine deposits. This combination of a sunny, warm aspect and free-draining, mineral-rich soils is ideal for creating full phenolic ripeness and mineral complexity in the Colli Berici wines. In fact, the Colli Berici DOC laws take care to exclude land on the flood plains or at the bottom of the valleys, and also land with peaty, sandy soils. The Colli Berici mesoclimate is measurably milder than that on the lower-lying land below; in fact it is so mild that olive trees, more often associated with warmer central and southern Italy, flourish in the area.
Varietals made under the Colli Berici name are split evenly between red and white. The former category includes Pinot Nero, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet (a combination of the two), Carmenere and Tai Rosso. Their white equivalents are Chardonnay, Garganega, Pinot Bianco, Sauvignon, Tai and Professor Luigi Manzoni's Riesling–Pinot Bianco hybrid Manzoni Bianco. For any of these wines to bear the name of its variety, it must be made from at least 85% of the stated grape.
Colli Berici Spumante is a metodo classico wine (made in the methode traditionelle), and comes in bianco and rosato forms. Chardonnay must make up at least half of these wines, with varying proportions of Pinot Bianco and Pinot Nero depending on the desired color and flavor profile.
Colli Berici Bianco comes not only in a still, dry form, but also in lightly sparkling frizzante, foaming spumante and sweet, dried-grape passito forms. It is made from a minimum 50% base of Garganega, with the remaining proportion taken up with any white grapes permitted under the DOC's laws. Its Colli Berici Rosso equivalent has Merlot at its core (also at a minimum of 50%), and comes in a youthful, early-drinking novello form and a pre-aged riserva form which must acquire an extra 2% final alcohol and may only be released for sale two years after harvest. The same riserva conditions apply to each of the red varietals made under this DOC.
The final wine style in this exhaustive portfolio is Colli Berici Barbarano, a title reserved for red wines (both still and spumante) from vineyards in the communes of Longare, Castegnero, Villaga, Mossano, Nanto and the Barbarano (Barbarano Vicentino in full) cited in the title.
