As our trip with Nadia Galati across Northern Italy continued, we drove to the Veneto and stopped in the town of Conegliano to visit the Azienda Agricola Conte Collalto. This historic winery, which traces its family roots back to 958 AD, is one of the oldest in all of Italy. We went to the winery where we met up with a group from Argentina, who we spent the day with as we all toured the winery, castle…yes, well every Princess must have a castle. At lunch we were joined by Princess Isabella Collalto de Croy, my very favorite Princess ever! And contrary to what you may have heard about princesses, you know, about being 'princesses' and all, this is one of the nicest princesses you will ever meet. The Princess Isabella took us all on a tour of the Castello San Salvatore that lasted all afternoon. She gave us a detailed history of this old and powerful northern Italian family that ruled this area of Italy for so many centuries.

 The other great part of the stop was the opportunity to taste the wonderful wines produced by the estate. The wines ranged from the complex Proseccos, the truly delicious Pinot Grigio, a couple of wines I had not had before such as Wildbacher, Manzoni Bianco and Manzoni Rosa and a wine I have enjoyed in the past, the Collalto Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. All these wines were poured at a very special dinner we attended that evening.

The next day we were treated to a day in the historic
city of Venice, which included lunch at the famous Hotel Danieli. This memorable lunch, hosted by Princess Isabella, began with a wonderful reception of hors d'oeuvres and Collalto Wines and moved to a grand dining room for an intimate lunch that filled this beautiful room with fanciful food, delicious wines and Italian, Argentinian and American laughter. It was great fun!

  It was hard to say goodbye to the incredible people we met at Collalto, but we had to move on to our next visit, which I will tell you all about next time…until then, cheers.

Ken Amendola, Wine Supervisor North Florida

Follow me on Twitter @abcwinekena