Franciacorta - The Italian Champagne

Franciacorta is a small wine-producing area in Lombardy, northern Italy. It is famous for its high-quality sparkling wines, which are made very much in the image of Champagne. The Franciacorta wine region is located in the Brescia province, in the hills immediately south-east of the foot of Lake Iseo. Roughly square in shape, it stretches eastwards for 15 miles (25km) from the Oglio River (which flows out from the lake) until reaching the Mella River valley and the western suburbs of Brescia city.
As a high-quality sparkling wine made in the Methode Champenoise from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir (with limited amounts of Pinot Blanc), Franciacorta is clearly Italy's answer to Champagne. The wine comes in both non-vintage and vintage forms, and the standard white is complemented by a rosé version (for which the base wine must be at least 25% Pinot Noir). There is even a blanc de blancs equivalent called Franciacorta Satèn, made exclusively from Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco.

There are two clear differences between the Franciacorta and Champagne, however: history and scale. Franciacorta's history dates back just 50 years; Champagne's closer to 350. Franciacorta's annual production is around 27,000 hectoliters; Champagne's is closer to 2,700,00 h/L (100 times as much).

The first sparkling wine to bear the name Franciacorta was created by the Berlucchi winery in the late 1950s. The wine, which was a conscious attempt at emulating Champagne, was very well received. Other producers soon followed suit, and the style developed quickly. The Franciacorta DOC title was created in 1967, to cover the area's sparkling wines and their non-sparkling counterparts.
All Franciacorta wine is bottle-aged on its lees, to increase its complexity and flavor integration. The ageing period is 18 months for the non-vintage wines, 24 months for the rosé and satèn, 30 months for the vintage-marked millesimato and an impressive 60 months for the riserva wines.

Producer Information:
On the top of Santa Giulia hill, beside the Cluniac church of the same name, lies the glorious eighteenth century villa Palazzo Cazzago – home to the 1701 winery. The villa dates back to several families of Italian nobility, with 15 hectares of hillside in Cazzago San Martino, Franciacorta. The "1701" name was chosen to recall the first vinification of the estate’s “Brolo”, a sun-drenched 4 hectare vineyard framed by 11th century walls. 1701 is a certified organic winery, and has recently received biodynamic certification – in fact, the winery is the first and only certified biodynamic producer in the Franciacorta region.
The 1701 Franciacorta Brut is the perfect union between the structural elegance of Chardonnay and the character of Pinot Nero. A marriage of exceptional raw materials, its full palate is bilance by marked acidity-this wine is the perfect ambassador of the winemaker’s art.