CHEERS! Raise a Glass of Fabulous Franciacorta This Summer
This summer I’ve got a new favorite wine that I’ve been serving at all my Hamptons events. Franciacorta is a sparkling wine from the Italian Province of Brescia (Lombardy) with DOCG status. It is produced using the traditional method from grapes grown within the boundaries of the territory of Franciacorta, on the hills located between the southern shore of Lake Iseo and the city of Brescia. Today Franciacorta is not just the name of an area. Its wines and production methods now respond to rigid and thoroughgoing standards designed to fully certify its quality.
The Strada del Franciacorta wine road, on the other hand, promotes and develops the area’s tourist potential, offering itineraries through greater and less well known masterpieces of art, nature and history. An unmistakeable logo, a battlemented F, embodies the area’s wines, conjuring up the historic battlemented towers characteristic of the 19 towns within the production zone: Adro, Brescia (partial), Capriolo, Cazzago San Martino, Cellatica, Coccaglio, Cologne, Corte Franca, Erbusco, Gussago, Iseo, Monticelli Brusati, Ome, Paderno Franciacorta, Paratico, Passirano, Provaglio d’Iseo, Rodengo Saiano and Rovato.
The Franciacorta Consortium is the body which guarantees and monitors Franciacorta production standards, as the first Italian wine produced exclusively with the bottle refermentation process to have obtained the Protected and Guaranteed Designation of Origin (DOCG) denomination in 1995. The consortium’s work takes various forms: safeguarding the brand and the area, promoting the product in ongoing work on the production regulations and standards, raising consumer awareness and promoting Franciacorta as an expression of an area, a wine and a production method.
From the seventies, in Franciacorta, wine producers began to organise wine tasting events to allow visitors to try wines from the area. One of the preferred locations was the Convento dell’Annunciata (Convent of the Annunciation) on Mount Orfano. Later, this type of event underwent a transformation into the more structured festivals that today take place in the area. On this occasion, during the grape harvest, the wineries remain open for 4 days for visits and tasting events.
The Festival del Franciacorta in Cantina (Franciacorta Winery Festival) is today an unmissable event that takes place in mid September, which is dedicated to lovers of all things beautiful who over two weekends have the opportunity to experience and enjoy the places involved in creating Franciacorta wine. Try serving Franciacorta at your next Hamptons soiree. Available at Sag Harbor Liquor Store at 52 Main Street.
