Franciacorta–Your New Favorite Sparkling Wine by Contadi Castaldi, Brescia, Lombardy, IT

Italian wines most often carry the name of the place where they are made, the DOC, DOCG or IGT. This one is Franicacorta a region in Brescia on the southeast shores of the exquisitely beautiful Lake Iseo. Here wonderful wines are made by producers like Contadi Castaldi a vineyard of the Terra Morretti group.

In Franciacorta’s formation 11 years ago it was required that all sparkling wines here be made in the metodo classico, metodo champenoise the same process used in France. Using Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco and Pinot Nero grapes the result is a lusciously pleasing wine that you will love.

While the DOC Franciacorta is really very new, wines of this area have ancient traditions, they are found in Brescia City council books as "Franzacurta" as far back as in 1277.

Since its formal creation production has grown in leaps and bounds. I used to find these wines too expensive for casual enjoyment, but with world competition from France, Spain and Italy’s own Prosecco prices are coming down. Which is lucky since we quickly polished off 3 bottles of this at a 4TH of July party last week.

For that I made a cute cocktail of the white wine and skewers of blueberries and cherries. Red, white and blue.

A 2012 article on Bloomberg.com reported that Franciacorta’s evolution has been rapid and “Franciacorta was being referred to as the Silicon Valley of Italian wine.” and that “In the past decade the area under cultivation quadrupled, producing 11 million bottles in 2011.” Champagne Flattened by Italian Sparklers

Managed by family member Francesca Moretti, the vision is to provide "The most beautiful sensation a wine can offer: a taste of the magic of its native landscape. We wrote about Francesca last February as a prominent woman in the Italian wine world.

Her father Vittorio Moretti started making wine for his friends and family in 1977 as a passionate hobby at his hotel L’Albereta. This lead to quest to perfect the art of sparkling wines by researching the region of Champagne in France and the rest is history.

Over the years Vittorio and Francesca have built a small empire of very fine vineyards. 

Their Franciacorta is worthy of a try, found ours at Shoppers Vineyard.