2016 Adami Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Col Credas Rive di Farra di Soligo Brut 750 ml

There is Prosecco and then there is Adami Brut Prosecco Superiore DOCG. A benchmark producer that Vinous has crowned “one of Prosecco’s best,” we quite literally fell for Adami’s 2016 Col Credas bottling when we visited its dauntingly steep vineyard slopes in Valdobbiadene last year.

It’s rare to find a 100% estate wine in Prosecco, but this single-vineyard 2016 Col Credas is an exception: A terroir-driven, small production sparkler that utterly over-delivers on its $22 price.

An eminently serious Prosecco through and through, its rich mousse belies a delicate, persistent bead. It’s hard to not dive in for a sip right off the bat, but the wisteria and acacia blossom bouquet gives pause enough to slowly savor, while notes of apple and pear finally prove irresistible. Richly flavored yet remarkably refreshing on the palate, white peach and crushed stone get an elegant dusting of anise spice through the elegant, bone-dry finish.

We only had a couple of days in the Prosecco capital of Valdobbiadene, but Adami topped our list as the one grower Prosecco producer we absolutely had to visit. Just like a grower-Champagne house, the Adami family owns far more of their own vineyards than almost any of their peers while managing 100% of production, ensuring that quality always comes before an opportunistic scale.

Though Abele Adami produced the very first single-vineyard Prosecco in 1920, his grandsons Franco and Armando are best known today for taking their patriarch’s vision a step further. In Vinous’ last Prosecco tasting report, critic Ian D'Agata wrote, “As is almost always the case, Adami's was one of the best lineups of Proseccos I tasted this year,” but we think the family continues to especially knock it out of the park with their single-vineyard Rive bottlings like Col Credas.

Rive is the name for the region’s steep hillside vineyards in the local dialect. The very best DOCG-designated wines come from their precarious slopes which have a striking topography more akin to the Mosel or Douro Valley than the relative flatlands of their undesignated Prosecco cousins. Of all the bottles of Prosecco produced annually, less than .5% (yes, ½ of a percent) are from the Rive.

Thanks to the steep aspect of that unforgiving Rive terrain, our Col Credas vineyard trek was not quite as elegant as its finished wine. We stumbled up its nutrient-poor slopes, holding on to the Glera vine stakes for dear life while occasionally taking a tumble into the calcareous rock soils that create such unmistakable minerality and sophistication in this 2016 Brut Prosecco Superiore.

Covered in the very dirt we’d begged the Adami family to show us, it was worth the hike to marvel at the wild beauty that’s so often overlooked when considering the origins of truly great Prosecco.

And at $22, this Col Credas is truly great.