Like Champagne, But Not its Price? You’ll Love Franciacorta!
- Marla
- Aug 19
- 5 min read
Champagne is no doubt the best known and most revered sparkling wine, long equated with royalty, elegance, and quality. A sparkling wine can only be called Champagne if it has been made in the Champagne region of France.
But of course sparkling wine is produced in many other places.
When people think of Italy and sparkling wine, their first thought is probably the popular, mass-produced Prosecco, or maybe Lambrusco.
But that would be unfair, as Italy produces a fabulous sparkling wine called Franciacorta that deserves way more attention.
Franciacorta is made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir (Nero), Pinot Blanc, and/or the indigenous Erbamat grape. There are several categories of Franciacorta:
Non-vintage
Rose/Rosato
Satèn, “silk” in Italian, a soft style typical of the region
Millesimato, which includes the vintage date
Riserva
There is evidence that wine has been produced in the region since the Eighth Century. In the 1950s it was determined that the area may be better suited for sparkling wine rather than still wine.
Franciacorta is often called “Italy’s Champagne” because it mainly uses the same grapes (Chardonnay and Pinot Noir), produces the wine using the same labor-intensive “Champagne Method” and ages the wine for longer times than some other sparkling wines. It’s also highly regulated, like Champagne. The result: two similar yet distinctive elegant, high-quality wines. Yet it doesn’t have Champagne’s higher price tag.
However, unlike Champagne, which is easy to purchase around the world, Franciacorta is harder to find outside of Italy, and much of what is exported remains in Europe.
Wait! What is the “Champagne Method” of Production?
To understand why Franciacorta stands out, it helps to know what the “Champagne method” of production is. Sparkling wines are produced by the use of a second fermentation, adding sugar and yeast to a base wine. The yeast converts the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide in the second fermentation is what creates the bubbles. To prevent the carbon dioxide from escaping, the second fermentation must occur in a sealed container.
The Champagne method, sometimes called the traditional method, requires that the second fermentation take place in sealed bottles. The yeast creates a sediment that adds flavors to the wine. Eventually the sediment needs to be removed.
In the Champagne method, it’s removed by very slowly moving the bottles from horizontal to upside down so the sediment moves into the bottle’s neck, which is frozen, trapping the sediment. The bottle is then opened, and the pressure forces the ice and sediment out of the bottle. It’s quite a process, even though nowadays it’s automated. Imagine when this was all done by hand! Spain’s sparkling wine, Cava, also uses this method.
In contrast, the second fermentation for some sparkling wines, including Prosecco and most Lambrusco, is in large steel tanks. These wines also age for a much shorter time, so the wine gets less flavor from the sediment. The sediment is removed by filtration. As a result, these wines, while great, are cheaper, less complex, and often more commercial.
Visiting Franciacorta
The Franciacorta wine region is only about an hour east of Milan, in Lombardy, but sees fewer visitors than many other Italian wine regions. There are likely several reasons why:
1. The wine is relatively unknown outside of Italy.
2. The region specializes in sparkling wine, which not everyone is into.
3. While there are about 125 wine producers in Franciacorta, many do not accept visitors.
4. It’s off the beaten track, near the smaller Lake Iseo, very pretty but less of a tourist attraction than nearby Lake Como or Lake Garda.
We had the opportunity to take a day trip to this wonderful region to learn more about and sample Franciacorta. There are a few tour operators that will head out there. We were very happy with our trip with Nicolo, with Italy Destination by Paltours. It was slated as a small group tour, but it was just us on the trip. Unlike some of the tours to the area, which only visit one winery and maybe a nearby village, our visit included two starkly different wineries as well as two stops to enjoy Lake Iseo, one for a stroll in the village of Sarnico and later for lunch in the village of Clusane.
Guido Berlucchi
The first winery we visited was Guido Berlucci, one of the largest producers and exporters of Franciacorta. This winery is also one of the pioneers of modern Franciacorta, when Berlucci teamed up with winemaker Franco Ziliani to make Champagne-style sparkling wine back in 1961. The Ziliani family still owns the winery and has a bottle from 1961 on display.
We had an extensive, private tour of the cellar, which dates to 1680. We could see on the walls the marks from the explosions of bottles when the winery first started and was still getting a handle on production.
We were also lucky enough to have our tasting in Guido Berlucci’s former home, a Sixteenth-Century palace on the grounds called Palazzo Lana. It’s not usually open for tastings.
We sampled, accompanied by bread and grano padano, a local cheese, generous pours of :
Berlucci ’61 Satèn 100% Chardonnay 😊++
Berlucchi 2020 Vintage, 80% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Noir 😊😊
Berlucchi ’61 Nature (no added sugar), 70% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir 😊😊+
We then had a wonderful three-course meal at Muliner Trattoria, family-owned and operated since 1964 and just steps from Lake Iseo. Most of the other patrons were locals. While the menu is varied, the restaurant not surprisingly specializes in fish from the lake. We washed it down with – you guessed it – more Franciacorta, this time Franciacorta Brut from winemaker Santus 😊😊.
Ronco Calino
The second winery we visited, Ronco Calino, is much smaller, founded in 1996, and calls itself “the hidden oasis in Franciacorta.” The winery specializes in drier Franciacorta; it also produces some still red wine in a nod to the region’s history.
We had another thorough, private tour of the cellar and then moved to the modern tasting room overlooking the vineyards.
For this tasting, which was accompanied by grissini, the local breadsticks, and organically produced Parmesan Reggiano, our guide poured all three wines at once so we could compare them – the bubbles’ size and speed, the aromas, the taste - side by side.
We sampled:
Satèn Non-Vintage, 100% Chardonnay 😊😊
Brut, Non-Vintage, 80% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Noir 😊😊
Brut Nature 2019, 70% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir 😊😊+
I hope that these insights about Franciacorta inspire you to look for it in your local wine store and consider a visit if you’re in Northern Italy. Faccianmo un brindisi! (“Let’s raise a toast!”)
Are you a fan of sparkling wine? Which ones would you recommend? Please let us know. We’re at info@winewithourfamily.com.
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