«It’s not just the Italian Champagne that wasn’t there before. It was a lever to redevelop an entire landscape. If over the years 3 thousand hectares of vineyards had not been planted, probably, in an industrialized province like that of Brescia, today we would have another 3 thousand hectares of warehouses ».
This was Franciacorta for Italian wine and Lombardy in the words of Franco Ziliani, the ninety-year-old enologist who, according to many, was responsible for the intuition, at the dawn of the 1960s, to produce in these lands, until then land of still wines, a sparkling wine. Or rather the Italian Champagne.
Ziliani was called by Guido Berlucchi, a descendant of the Lana de ‘Terzi family in ’55, to stabilize his still wines based on Pinot. After a few attempts, in 1961 the first 3 thousand bottles of Pinot di Franciacorta sparkling wine. The 60 years of the Berlucchi winery (which today manages 550 hectares of vineyards and has a turnover of 45.3 million euros) and the 90 of Franco Ziliani will be celebrated today during the third edition of the Berlucchi Academy and with a concert by the pianist Stefano Bollani at the Teatro Grande in Brescia.
«I loved the taste of Champagne very much – says Franco Ziliani – and one of my greatest desires was to create a wine that at least in part was an alternative to Champagne. So we planted Pinot Noir in an area where there were only varieties handed down by tradition and we began to produce the sparkling wine that today characterizes an entire area ».
There was only Champagne and Asti spumante and the opportunities to consume them were very few. With the revolution of aperitifs a lot has changed and today Franciacorta, thanks to its versatility, its different types, different dosages and refinements and the variable rosé can allow you to find the right bubble for each dish. It can take it one step further and become a wine for the whole meal.
Much has been done on the road but exports still need to be developed