Colle Florido
Colle Florido
Pianella,Abruzzo, Italy
After years of dancing around as a sommelier in some of the most elegant Michelin-starred restaurants in Europe, among which the beloved Il Pellicano on the Tuscan coast, Andrea Ugolotti left his polished dining room look for the rustic fields of Montalcino with a desire to learn about farming and making wine. With the meticulous air of someone who has cared for others his entire career, Andrea now tends to vineyards on his farm, Colle Florido, in Pianella, Abruzzo together with his wife, Daniela. They originally set out to make two wines, a white and a red, made from Trebbiano d’Abruzzo and Montepulciano, respectively.
“We chose leaving our previous lives to come living in Abruzzo to grow a family and to make wine was a beautiful way to enjoy both. With the family's help we have built Colle Florido: step by step, learning something every single day, making all of this by Daniela and I. We want to represent at most our farm, the wines are the mix of the season, the terroir, and our ideas, with a big respect for nature.
We also want to be very clear about something that we care about: we are not like the greatest and historically famous Abruzzo wineries; we are a new, small family project, made from scratch 5 years ago. We care for everything, as artisanally as possible. And as I told the Abruzzo agriculture governor, we are not making wines in D.O.C., to be absolutely free to make the wines as the vintage says, not to deconstruct the terroir but to tell more about it”
-ANDREA UGOLOTTI
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While Andrea reigns from the dining room, his wife, Daniela Trolio, is originally from Pianella in Abruzzo, though she had long embarked on a career as an architect in Paris. Willing to start a family and live closer to the land, they both abandoned their careers to start something together on Daniela’s family’s land in Pianella. It is very much a two man show, small but mighty. Andrea and Daniela’s utmost goal is to care for the land as respectfully as possibile. They started their production in 2016 and today farm about 3.5 hectares of Montepulciano and Trebbiano with utmost care for the environment and for sustainability which are vital to their approach. Given Andrea’s roots, the wines seek precision in the glass but without the exaggeration or “outside of the lines” characteristic that often define winemaking in Abruzzo.
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Colle Florida is situated in Pianella, a small town in the province of Pescara. The ecosystem here is vast, encompassing the cultivation of vines, olives, vegetables, grain and other crops, plus pastures and thick woods which make this area unique and rich with resources. The terrain is hilly in this portion of Abruzzo, Italy’s mountainous region along the Adriatic Sea reaching a max of 280 m above sea level. Ferrous clay and limestone dominates the vineyards, which lend to lower yields but high quality fruit.
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The vineyards are run organically and using as much local tradition and technique as possibile. The Montepulciano is all planted “tendone” (essentially a high pergola), while Trebbiano is cultivated in more classic rows. No chemicals are used in the vineyards and only a minimal amount of copper and sulfur is applied if necessary. Harvest is done by hand.
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In the cellar, fermentation is spontaneous from indigenous yeasts, without any temperature control. No fining or filtration, nor other additives are used in the cellar. Sulfur in kept under 20 mg/L.