The rich history and legend of Loredan Gasparini begins in 1951, when Count Piero Loredan — a descendant of Venetian Doge Leonardo Loredan — chose the red, iron-rich hills of Venegazzù, at the foot of the Montello some 40 kilometers north of Venice, to plant an audacious dream: Bordeaux varieties on Venetian soil. The gamble paid off spectacularly. By the 1960s, the estate’s noble red graced official banquets in Venice and won the devotion of presidents and dignitaries — most famously Charles de Gaulle, whose admiration inspired its name: Capo di Stato, “Head of State.” Born from the fabled “100 Plants” vineyard planted in 1946, it remains one of Italy’s most storied reds, honored in the French volume 100 Vins de Légende.

But this house is equally a pioneer of the sparkling arts. When Giancarlo Palla took the helm in 1973, he immediately added a metodo classico program and began championing quality Prosecco when few dared — fighting to win DOC status for the region in 1977 and, ultimately, recognition of Asolo Prosecco Superiore DOCG in 2009. Today the estate’s bubbles are its calling card as much as its reds: a cuvée indigène drawn from the old Belvedere vineyard, planted in 1969 with historic Prosecco clones, fermented with only indigenous yeasts in a slow, cold, nine-month process that yields a creaminess and finesse few Proseccos can touch. This is Asolo at its most authentic — structured, complex, and decidedly superior.

The estate’s 60 hectares thrive on the Montello’s singular terroir: red clay soils laced with iron and minerals, hillsides sheltered by the Pre-Alps, and vineyards celebrated in print since 1590. From this land come profound, age-worthy Venegazzù blends and some of the most distinctive sparkling wines in the Veneto.

Seven decades on, the house that dared to plant Bordeaux in the Veneto — and dared to believe in Prosecco before the world caught on — still makes wines of aristocratic depth and effervescent charm.