The bubbles that delight: Franciacorta

Very fine, lingering perlage that delights the senses. Unforgettable bubbles are the first thing one thinks of when Franciacorta is mentioned. Bubbles that born in an amazing wine production area around the city of Brescia within the heart of the Lombardia region in Northern Italy.

Quality, pleasure and elegance with the great versatility of being able to be matched with many diverse dishes. This has brought this wine to the forefront in a just a few years as these numbers will show: 9,662,691 bottles of Franciacorta sold in 2008 and an increase of 16% over 2007. The annual rate of growth, which for some years had remained constant at 10%, made another very significant leap forward.

Franciacorta
Franciacorta’s intriguing name takes us back through history to the Corti Franche when, after the arrival of Cluniac monks, it became an area of free trade (that means “curtes francae”).

As long ago as 1995, Franciacorta was the first Italian wine produced exclusively by bottle refermentation to obtain Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita status.
Today, the labels bear only the designation Franciacorta, a single term that defines the territory, the method of production and the wine.

A long, fascinating process
As they are for all premium wines, production times and methods are long, meticulous and precisely gauged.

Once harvested by hand, the bunches are placed in small cases for transport to the cellar, where the fruit from each vineyard is processed separately.
The grapes are soft-crushed to obtain free-run juice for the production of Franciacorta base wines. In springtime, they will go into the cuvée, a blend of Franciacorta base wines that may be from different vintages and is selected from meticulous tastings, to achieve the qualities with which each winery wishes to imbue “its” Franciacorta.

The next stage is the so called tirage, which involves adding a syrup of sugar and active yeasts to the wine in the bottle in order to encourage slow natural refermentation that increase pressure inside the bottle to five or six atmospheres.

The sealed bottles are then stored in the cellar on horizontal racks and is during these months that Franciacorta acquires its distinctive sensory profile as the complexity of its aromatics deepens.

For undosed Franciacortas, only wine is used to top up the level in the bottle but for other types a syrup of Franciacorta base wine with sugar is added. The sugar content of the liqueur determines the flavour type of the Franciacorta concerned (Extra Brut, Brut, Extra Dry, Sec or Dry and Demi Sec).



The Franciacortas
The different Franciacortas wines are obtained from different percentages of blends of Chardonnay, Pinot Nero and Pinot Bianco.

Franciacorta: Winemaking and maturation continue for at least 25 months after the harvest whit a refermentation in the bottle of a minimum of 18 months ageing on the lees.

It is straw yellow with greenish or golden highlights with fine, lingering perlage.
It has distinctive, fermentation-derived yeasty notes of crusty bread on the nose, accompanied by subtle citrus and dried fruit and nuts, including almonds, hazelnuts and dried figs.
It is savoury, fresh-tasting, delicate and harmonious.

Flavour categories: Undosed, Extra Brut, Brut, Extra Dry, Sec or Dry and Demi Sec.

Franciacorta Satèn: This wine owns a very fine, lingering, almost creamy perlage. Its characteristic soft mouth feel deriving from lower bottle pressure that is less than five atmospheres.

It is pale to more intense straw yellow with greenish highlights. It has nuanced but distinct fragrance of ripe fruit, accompanied by subtle notes of spring flowers and almond and hazelnut-like dried or roasted nuts; the palate reveals pleasing savouriness and freshness fusing with the deliciously soft texture, which is reminiscent of silk on skin.

Flavour categories: Brut.

Franciacorta Rosé: Can be obtained from exclusively Pinot Noir base wine vinified with brief skin contact or from a blend of this wine with Chardonnay and/or Pinot Bianco base wine.
The Pinot Noir in the blend (minimum 25%) gives this Franciacorta its unique
body and vigour.

Flavour categories: Undosed, Extra Brut, Brut, Extra Dry, Sec or Dry and Demi Sec.

Franciacorta Millesimato: Millesimato (Vintage) Franciacortas have sensory and gustatory profiles that distinctly reflect the weather conditions during the growing year and the quality of the grapes from that particular vintage. Obtained from base wines at least 85% from the same vintage.
At least 37 months must elapse between the harvest and release to market.

Flavour categories: Undosed, Extra Brut, Brut, Extra Dry, Sec or Dry and Demi Sec.

Franciacorta Riserva: This is a Millesimato, although it may also be a Satèn or Rosé, which has stayed on the lees for at least 60 months and is released for consumption fully 67 months, or five and a half years, after the harvest.

Flavour categories: Undosed, Extra Brut, Brut, Extra Dry, Sec or Dry and Demi Sec.

The Franciacorta’s Consortium
Founded on the 5th of March 1990 is chaired by Ezio Maiolini and directed by Adriano Baffelli.
The consortium has stewardship of the Franciacorta production protocol and undertakes a wide range of activities, from monitoring production to protecting and promoting both designation and wine, and providing information on the product and its territory. The consortium also certifies the entire production chain, from grape growing to distribution of the government-issued DOCG neck labels to all the wineries that use the designation, whether consortium members or not.

Ezio Maiolini, President of Consortium Franciacorta



What do you see as the future for the Consortium, an increase in exports or domestic consumption?
"Certainly within our national borders. Still today, even with significant growth data, Franciacorta remains a niche product with low productive volume due to the particularity of our territory. Franciacorta, though varied, is a small area which can grow only so much in terms of quantity.”

Regarding the exportation, do you feel more protected since the Doc, Docg, Igt are now in a common Dop/Igp register?
“Absolutely not because DOCs and DOCGs are much better known at the international level than DOPs or IGPs, the visibility of which is decisively inferior.
I believe it is important to note how we producers of DOCGs have worked very hard in the past few years to promote our image and this register is nothing but a big hodgepodge which does not make the needed distinctions which are instead essential.”

Is Franciacorta wine confined by tradition or opened to innovation?
"And why not both? We are convinced that we will be able to integrate magnificently these two elements. Attention to tradition because we produce Franciacorta using the "classical method" which calls for harvesting the grapes necessarily by hand and doing the "remouage" of every single bottle at the end of the re-fermentation process. But we also pay close attention to any innovation which brings significant improvement to the product and to its productive process. The technical department of the Consorzio is absolutely one of the most technically advanced at the national level and beyond. It's enough to remember precision viticulture which makes use of satellites and zonation, a study in which we analyzed the specific growing characteristics of every micro-area of Franciacorta. This allowed us to know what vines to plant and to know in advance what results we would have.”

Pairing Franciacorta flavour categories
Each type of Franciacorta has its own distinct personality. Here are some recommendations for flavour pairing.

The Undosed is the driest wine in the Franciacorta range. The dry flavour, accompanied by the characteristic fragrances of bottle refermentation – crusty bread and yeasts– makes it perfect as an aperitif or to drink through the meal.

The Extra Brut is very dry and it is a splendid partner for fish, crustaceans and raw shellfish.

The Brut is dry but rather softer than Extra Brut, it is undoubtedly the most versatile food wine, excellent as an aperitif as well as being a splendid wine to drink through the meal, particularly with subtly flavoured dishes.

The Extra Dry is suitable for quiches and baked vegetables. Excellent as an aperitif for those who are not fond of very dry flavours.

The Sec, Dry is indeed slightly sweet and especially suitable for soft, tangy, fatty cheeses, such as taleggio, or blue cheeses like gorgonzola. A recommended matching for liver pâté. Excellent with moderately sweet desserts and in general at the end of the meal with petits fours, fruit tarts or sweet focaccias.

The Demi Sec is an excellent partner for traditional sweets and cakes, like Panettone and Pandoro. Equally enjoyable on its own with finger foods or tangy cheeses, Demi Dry is a fine match for a wide range of dishes and products.

The Satèn is outstandingly subtle and elegant, ideal to drink through the meal but particularly good with oven-baked pasta, delicately flavoured risottos and fish dishes based on sturgeon, salmon, trout, whitefish, tench and fat-rich fish. A very good match for richly flavoured dishes, which are nicely complemented by its freshness.

The Rosé with its body and vigour mean this wine can be enjoyed with salami and sausages, mushroom, asparagus or radicchio risottos, eggplant parmigiana, flavoursome fish soups, lamb, veal or snail. Demi Sec Franciacorta Rosé is a fine match for tarts, petits fours and biscuit-based sweets.

Special Vintages
As with all of the great wines, there are certain years that surpass themselves in excellence: 1997, 2005 and 2006 produced some truley unforgetable Franciacorta vintages.