Franciacorta’s Fabulous Sparklers (well what did you think I meant…?)

Now that the weather has warmed up (consideraby) in my neck of the woods, it is nice to partake of some sparkling white wines…

So, notwithstanding the fact that we make some pretty good fizz here in Piemonte, I took a trip to Franciacorta.  This was not because I don’t want to drink what we have on offer here, but a serendipitous concatenation of circumstances.  Two lovely visitors from America were in Alba for a few days, and then going on to Verona – which I recommend here, and here…and here.  They mentioned that they like sparkling wine, so I proposed that they do a day trip from Verona to Franciacorta.  But it so happened that I was free on the day that they were to catch the train to Verona, so I suggested that I drive them to Franciacorta – which is sort of on the way – and then drop them in Verona after a lovely day’s tasting.  What’s not to like?

The first stop after our 2-and-a-half-hour drive was Arcari & Danesi (above) where we were met by my old friend, the incomparable Arianna.  Arianna was born in the region and has lived her whole life there.  Prior to working at Arcari & Danesi, she worked at the Franciacorta Consorzio.  There is essentially nothing that Arianna does not know about the region.  And her passion is evident for all to see.

Arcari & Danesi is a small producer, hand-crafting their wines: a world away from the industrial giants of the region.  They make a number of cuvées, all using the Solouva (only grapes) method.  Being Franciacorta wines, they are made in essentially the same way as Champagne and other ‘classic method’ sparkling wines: ferment a base wine still (no bubbles) then bottle it, adding some yeast and sugar to create bubbles and a little more alcohol in each bottle.  Once the wine has aged on its lees (the dead yeast cells) for the required time (either a legal minimum or what the producer feels is necessary) the yeast is then extracted from each bottle and a little more wine and (usually) sugar is used to top the bottle to 750ml and the cork is put in.

Solouva does most of these steps in the same way, but instead of using sugar for the fermentation in the bottle, they use unfermented grape juice that they have kept separate for the purpose.  This means that they are not using any ‘added’ sugar whilst also resulting in a finished wine that is more representative of the region, since all of it is Franciacorta grape juice, without the ‘corrupting’ influence of cane sugar or concentrated grape must or whatever…It’s a more self-sufficient model and, if you’re of that philosophical bent, a more authentic, honest one.

In any case, it certainly gives us some wonderful wines at Arcari & Danesi.  All of the wines are aged at least 30 months on the lees, and in the case of the Coro delle Monache, the ageing is at leat 6 years on the yeast.  I can attest that at around 10 years-old, the 2015 is exceptionally good.

After the rigours of the morning, it was time for lunch here – in the delightful town of Rovato.  With a glass of Franciacorta, naturally…

Then it was onto another of my favourite producers, Monterossa.  Now things have changed at this producer since I was last here…The original property was a wonderful old country estate, characterful, sprawling and a delight to behold. 

But a pain to produce Franciacorta in, even in small quantities.  Eventually, following much discussion and planning, the family decided that to keep adding on a bit here, a bit there in an ad-hoc way was no longer viable, so they built a new facility from scratch a few kilometres from the original.  This gave them carte blanche to create the winery exactly as they would wish in every detail were they starting from nothing.  Because they were…

As a result, there are several layers to the winery, allowing gravity to do a lot of the work – reducing the effects of pumping on the wine as well as energy use.  No part of the new winery is more than 20 metres from the lab or the bottling line.  Everything was designed to ensure that making the wine was as easy and straightforward as possible, so that controlling and increasing the quality of the wines was easier.  The wines were already very good, and I expect that having a much more modern, purpose-designed winery will result in even better wines in the future.

We had a tour with Aldo Rabotti, the next generation of the family beginning to take over the reins, and a tasting at their ‘golden age of steam (punk) oyster bar’.  Minus the oysters.  Which would pair very well with the wines…

All-in-all, a terrific day tasting some fantastic wines.  It might not be a day trip from Alba, but if you are heading out Verona or Venice way on your Italian jaunt, I would highly recommend penciling-in an extra day to take in Franciacorta.

Tell you what, give me a buzz, and I might even be able to take you…!