Franciacorta Brut, Teatro alla Scala, Bellavista 2021
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Why this wine
Franciacorta is Italy's answer to Champagne and Bellavista is one of the two houses that made its reputation, working only its own vineyards. This is the cuvée poured at La Scala since 2004, barrel-fermented in part and given up to two years on lees, which buys a lot of complexity for the money. It is the bottle to reach for when Champagne feels predictable.
At a glance
- Grape
- Chardonnay 75%, Pinot Noir 25%
- Region
- Lombardy, Italy
- Alcohol
- 12.50%
- Body
- Medium
- Acidity
- High
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Long (10-20 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Seafood, Salads, Cheese
How it tastes
Elderflower and tropical fruit lead, with flint, incense and a Mediterranean-herb edge behind them. The mousse is lively and persistent and the palate elegant and saline rather than weighty, with 3 g/l of sugar leaving the long finish dry and appetising. Chardonnay 75%, Pinot Noir 25%.
The producer
Bellavista was founded in 1977 by the Moretti family at Erbusco, in the heart of Franciacorta, and now extends over 207 hectares and makes some 1,500,000 bottles a year on organic viticulture principles; the name translates as 'Beautiful View'. The fruit comes exclusively from the family's own 200 hectares on mineral-rich morainic hillsides around Lake Iseo, at altitudes up to 500 metres, from vines averaging 35 years old, Guyot, spur cordon and Sylvoz trained, fed with organic fertiliser and picked by hand. Pressing is slow and gentle in Coquard presses with cool decanting; the first fermentation runs in stainless steel at 15–18°C with around 32% in barrel at 23–28°C, and the wine is matured six to seven months before the assemblage takes its second fermentation in bottle and 18 to 24 months on lees. Since 2004 Bellavista has been the wine of honour at the Teatro alla Scala, the Milan opera house this bottling is named for.
Food and drinking
Serve at 8°C, in a white-wine glass rather than a flute. It is built for oysters, prosciutto and melon, a fritto misto of small fish or a young pecorino, and is drinking well now and for three to five years from the vintage; no decanting. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.