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About our Cantinas

Cantina Montelliana

Cantina Montelliana was established in 1957 and is one of the prestigious Cantina’s to which we import our exquisite Colucci’s Grey Label Extra Dry DOC Prosecco! The Cantina lies in the emerald foothills of the area stretching from Metello to the Asolo Hills, in the heart of the Trevisan March.

Cantina Montelliana distinguished itself in recent years for producing excellent Prosecco, DOC: the best of the zone! As evidenced by many awards received, their winery is committed to produce quality sparkling wines.

You can check out their awards here.... http://www.montelliana.it/eng/awards/ 

Valdobbiadene Hills

Cantina Borgo Molino estate was founded in 1922 by the Nardini family. This is home to our White Label GOLD DOC Prosecco and our Rose Spumante!

 This Cantina is nestled in the Valdobbiandene Hills, in the Veneto region of Italy, the home of the Glera grape that is signature to Prosecco. 

Because Cantina Borgo Molino is in the hills, the vineyards have to be farmed and picked carefully by hand! 

The Prosecco Regions of Italy

Italy’s commission for UNESCO has publicly backed the application for the area of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene - the home of Prosecco DOCG - to join their neighbouring Prosecco DOC regions in their world recognised heritage status. 

Prosecco was awarded the protected Designation of Origion Status (PDO) in 2009, this means that unless it is made from the Glera grape, which is only native to the Prosecco region, legally it cannot be called Prosecco - Like Champagne!

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Knowing your ABV!!

If you’re like me, you can’t seem to be able to make it through to Friday without having at least one bottle of wine! Being a working mum of a 13 year old boy and a 10 month old girl it really can be exhausting, homework, nappy changes, cooking the tea, washing, the list goes on for forever!! This being said, there is nothing I like better in the evenings, when the children are tucked up in bed, than to be relaxing on the sofa with my hubby to some form of outrageous series we are currently watching and a lovely large glass of vino!! To be frank with you, sometimes cracking the wine open doesn’t even wait until then, depending on what ever argument I’ve had with the teen about homework or his phonebill, or day I’ve had at work as I commute from Malvern to Reading (with baby in tow)!!

But, it came to my knowledge recently, upon a Doctors check up, just how many units and extra calories I was having per week!! Even just having one or two large glasses an evening equates to about 30 units, the recommended amount per week for women is 14!! We often drink wine with our meals, and some of us will more than easily have one or two large glasses of an evening without thinking anything too much about it. So I have compiled some info for my fellow wine drinkers!!

Red wine (usually my tipple of choice) is particularly high in calories, and you can tell this by the higher ABV (alcohol) content. In easy speak, a 250 ml glass can be anything up to 300 calories!! There are x3 250 ml glasses in a bottle, so if you can polish off the whole thing that’s 900 calories!! Half your days calorie intake! Crikey!! The unit intake is equally shocking as each 250 ml glass is 3.5 units of alcohol for red wine, 10.5 units in a bottle. Did you know you need to leave an hour per unit for absorption before driving? So if you have a bottle of red in the evening, you may only just be legal to drive to work in the morning!!

Ahh, white wine - Perfect for those long summer evenings in the garden! Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Savignion Blanc and (my favourite) Chenin Blanc!! White wine is definitely a better option for calories to red as it doesn’t have as much sugar, this is why white wine is usually dry, and equates to about 184kcal per 250 ml glass. However, that does not mean that it’s any better for you and your alcohol unit intake! White wine has just as many units per bottle as red. 

Sparkling wines seem to be very popular at the moment, especially Prosecco! However, you need to be careful here, sparkling wines tend to be quite easy to drink and because of the bubbles reduce the oxygen to the brain while consuming, meaning you’ll have one heck of a headache in the morning if you over indulge. Prosecco servings usually come in a 105 ml flute which can make it a bit harder to gauge. A 105 ml flute has around 69 calories, meaning a 250 ml glass is about 165 calories, better still for the waistline!! But again, watch those units!! There’s still 3 units in a large glass!! Prosecco can be quite deceiving too, simply because it has a lower alcohol content of 11% it is very easy to drink!!

Things to try:

If after reading this you are, like me, trying to cut back on those bottles then try the following;

1. Spritzers, both red and white can be made into spritzers. You can either use soda water or diet lemonade - depending on which you prefer, although soda water is a lot better for you. Try pouring into a tall, slim glass with a 1 part wine to 2 part mixer ratio, so you still get the taste of the wine but with smaller units and calories!

2. Sparkling wines, well it may seem like there isn’t much you can do here apart from mix with fruit juices, this may not help much on the calorie intake because of the sugar content in those alone, but at least it’ll help cut those units down. If you can, it is much better to use freshly squeezed juice as there is much less sugar! Try blended raspberries and coconut water, for example.

3. We’ve all had that advice that turning to shorts is better in calories, don’t be fooled that a Vodka Cranberry or Gin & Tonic is better for you. Spirits have a much higher alcohol content which means that even though it may be better for your waistline it is detrimental to your health in units! 

4. And, finally, try to have booze free days during the week so to prevent your body building a tolerance to alcohol - This could result in a very slippery slope to alcoholism! If I was told I could never drink wine again I would literally cry!!!

Most importantly, look after yourselves. We often forget the people we love wo love us back and the internal damage these things can create purely only because we don’t see the affects. 

I hope you found this blog useful, any comments are highly appreciated to help improve our blogs in the future!!

Sarah

Colucci’s