The Joy of Sparkling Wine

Miolo Franciacorta DOCG

Sparkling wine is a controversial topic. From the artificially inflated prices of Champagne (nobody forces you to buy it), to the merits of home-grown products (yes, home-grown as in the UK. Try the superb Nyetimber) to of course our own Italian Wine Boutique blind tastings with “the experts” where the “Miolo” Franciacorta DOCG without fail is voted “best Champagne of the evening!” Irresistibly amusing, just keep an eye on our Tastings page if you’d like to experience it live.

But the heat of the discussion becomes red and even white in their motherland, when the merits of sparkling wines from Italy are discussed. Loads of disinformation, critics and so called expert blowing hot hair, not to mention UK’ supermarkets are responsible for the confusion. But don’t you worry for a second! We are here to help with our charming Italian accents (pity there isn’t an app for it yet!) and our 35 years of experience as head sommeliers and wine consultant, we will reveal all the secrets, or industry facts as we call them, about Italian Sparkling wines.

Now, grab a glass of your favourite bubbles and relax while you read this introduction to Italian Sparkling wines. This is the first article of a series in which, we will explain loads of facts and share tons of tips about Italian Sparkling wines.

Italy produces traditional sparkling wines such as Asti Spumante (correct name, Moscato D’Asti DOCG), Franciacorta DOCG and of course the “new UK’s craze” Prosecco which has had since 1876 to perfect. But surely you have heard about these. What most people outside their Italian valleys of production have been missing, are those less known, sometimes unpronounceable, varieties that we know the UK taste buds would absolutely love. Yes, there is an awful lot more to Italian Sparkling wines than Asti and Prosecco.
This is possible, yet again, to the truly infinite variety and richness of  grape and terroirs - a French word to indicate the combination of geography, geology and climate of a certain place that uniquely influence the quality of the crop - varieties in Italy. Since bubbles - as our next blogs will illustrate - are naturally, yet manually induced in sparkling wine, it is possible to attempt the creation of a sparkling wine virtually anywhere in the world and with any grapes. And this is exactly what happens with notoriously mixed results.

But thankfully in Italy, with its hundreds of indigenous grapes and terroirs, results are much more consistent. Having also had literally hundreds of years/vintages to experiment with, fine tune and perfect those combinations of grapes, terroirs and production methods, what Italy has to offer in terms of Sparkling wine would spoil for choice any bubble-lover.  


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So prepare yourself to hear all about the incredible Lessini Durello DOC made less than 30 miles from the Prosecco DOC area and tasting superb, but nothing like Prosecco, learn about what makes the bubbles, discover how the mushroom cork can increase the price you pay for your wine to, most importantly, what brut, dry and extra-dry can mean to your taste buds (not to dinner-party vocabulary!). From the Alps to the beaches of Sicily, here we come to spark (le) your wine experience!