Skip the champagne—there’s even cooler bubbly stuff to pop: the sparkling wines of Franciacorta, Italy. We asked Laura Gatti, winemaker at the area’s Ferghettina winery, to spill the details.
A vineyard in Italy’s Franciacorta wine region.
“Franciacorta is a small wine region in Lombardy, about a one-hour drive from Milan. The alpine climate and diversity in the soil result in a wide range of Franciacorta wines offering vibrant fruit and rich minerality. These wines are made in the classic method, produced with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Bianco grapes."
"A slow re-fermentation in the bottle and a long refining in contact with yeast result in a refreshing-yet-complex wine," she continues. "Franciacorta is a lesser-known region compared with Champagne, so Franciacorta is the sparkling you order if you’re in the know or want to try something new and unexpected.”
Samantha Leal is the Deputy Editor at Well+Good, where she spends most of her day thinking of new ideas across platforms, bringing on new writers, overseeing the day-to-day of the website, and working with the awesome team to produce the best stories and packages. Before W+G, she was the Senior Web Editor for Marie Claire and the Deputy Editor for Latina.com, with bylines all over the internet. Graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University with a minor in African history, she’s written everything from travel guides to political op-eds to wine explainers (currently enrolled in the WSET program) to celebrity profiles. Find her online pretty much everywhere @samanthajoleal.
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