Pizzini Il Soffio Prosecco 2024

Pale gold, a fine bubble, subtly yeasty and textural – wait, is this really Prosecco?! Il Soffio means “the breath” – a cooling wind that brings freshness to the gently ripening fruit in Pizzini’s high altitude Cheshunt vineyard. Hand picked and whole bunch pressed, this exceptional vintage has aromas of freshly cut apple slices, lemon blossom, shortbread and the crisp, cold, minerality of seashells on a winter beach. Beautifully dry, the base wine undergoes lees stirring once a week for six months to build texture and flavour. There’re flavours of lemon sorbet and white nectarine. Alongside that enticing texture, the lees work yields the savoury yeastiness of a boulangerie-fresh baguette in Paris – the kind you need to crunch into the moment you leave the store. In a world where Prosecco is often bright and juicy but a little sweet and simple, Pizzini’s Il Soffio is a guiding light. More please!

Nicole Bilson

Wine Critic at Winepilot

Nicole loves wine. So much so that she gave up a successful career in Pharmacy, perfected her spitting technique, and moved from sunny Queensland to the wine-drenched laneways of Melbourne. Stints in hospitality, wineries, retail, sales and marketing filled the next few years while Nicole built her knowledge and searched for the right path. She completed the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Diploma in 2016 and became a certified WSET Educator the following year. She now juggles a number of roles including teaching people about wine, curating wines lists for restaurants and bars, judging in Australian wine shows and, of course, writing. In 2016 she won the Negociants Working With Wine writing award and has since contributed to Gourmet Traveller WINE, Halliday Wine Companion Magazine and Nourish Magazine.

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