Nowadays many people seem to be of the opinion that loving wine means drinking the most expensive wines in existence. While particularly at the more affordable end of the market, the price tag has some correlation with the quality of wine as it will determine how much the wine maker could afford to spend on creating the…
Cellar Visit: La Montina in Franciacorta
Upon arriving at La Montina winery you find the 17th century Villa Baiana in front of you, once home to the estate’s founder, Benedetto Montini. Montini, a noble from Brescia and a descendant of Pope Paul VI, built the estate in 1620. There is a life-sized statue of Pope Paul VI in the cellar…
Cellar Visit: The King of Franciacorta: Ca’ del Bosco
The name Ca’ del Bosco, means “house in the woods”, as the land the winery currently sits on was a small house in a chestnut forest purchased by Annamaria Clementi Zanella in the mid-1960’s as a holiday home. Her son, Maurizio Zanella, turned the small house into one of the most technologically advanced wineries in…
Franciacorta: Champagne’s younger sister
Franciacorta, located to the west and south of Lago d’Iseo in Lombardia, is a sea of neatly arranged rows of green covering 6,000 hectares. It is a peaceful oasis in which grows Italy’s answer to Champagne. Great wine is often grown in areas of great beauty and Franciacorta is no exception. There are 80…