For years, the Luigi Veronelli Seminar has been publishing the most historical and classic Wine Guide of Italy: the I Vini di Veronelli Gold Guide. Among a selection of wines and estates, the 2025 edition reviews Col Sandago, Martino Zanetti’s winemaking gem, located in the heart of the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore D.O.C.G. area.

The estate presented some of its best wines for tasting, including Prosecco D.O.C.G. wines, but it was Wildbacher’s uniqueness that particularly captured the curators’ favor.

A uniqueness that Luigi Veronelli had already highlighted in a letter addressed to Martino Zanetti in 2001: “The grape variety known as Wildbacher is one of those few, very few, born in foreign lands that have found such an ideal place – Col Sandago – that they can no longer leave…”.

Wildbacher, “a rare diamond with a thousand facets“, is a grape variety from Styria that was saved from oblivion thanks to Martino Zanetti’s intuition and determination. In the hands of expert agronomists, this proud vine grows like a great little masterpiece, the rows are scrupulously designed, the small bunches, with compact and slightly fleshy grapes, are harvested strictly by hand.

At Col Sandago, Wildbacher is declined in four exceptional variants, three of which are included in the 2025 Gold Guide: “Wildbacher” Colli Trevigiani I.G.T. 2018, Col Sandago’s iconic red, with a limited and precious production and great evolutionary potential, “Wildbacher Metodo Classico” Extra Brut V.S.Q. 2018, a fascinating and persistent expression of the grape variety, and “Wildbacher Brut Rosé” V.S.Q., the refined Charmat Method sparkling wine with aromatic notes of wild strawberry and rose.

The I Vini di Veronelli 2025 Gold Guide once again confirms the greatness and uniqueness of these bottled masterpieces, whose fascinating and captivating history has found a new contemporaneity at Col Sandago.