Inauguration of the new Franciacorta Microvinification Laboratory

7 October 2024

The new Microvinification Laboratory opened this morning, as a new partnership between Accademia Symposium and the Franciacorta Consortium, set up for research and training purposes in the context of the PNRR tender designed to strengthen the laboratories of the Istituti Tecnologici Superiori – ITS Academy. The laboratory will provide new opportunities to develop cutting-edge winemaking techniques and contribute to the training of future generations of sector professionals.

Institutional figures and politicians attended the inauguration, a sign of the importance of this ambitious project. The Franciacorta Consortium’s President, Silvano Brescianini, expressed his enthusiasm for the initiative, a significant step forward in the fields of innovation and winemaking excellence in the area. “We set up an experimental vineyard in Erbusco in 2016, in Ca Marone. Until the last harvest the first microvinifications took place in San Michele all’Adige. This year, for the 2024 harvest, we have moved operations here. We have around one hundred tests under way and working ‘from home’ enables us to do things faster and train academy students. We are very grateful to the academy for its trust and partnership. Climate change makes experimentation essential, giving us a clearer idea about which sectors to invest in for the future. We are currently testing clone selections and genetic improvements for Erbamat as well as new ‘climate tolerant’ selections. It will be decades before we full understand the potential of the varieties we have planted because we need to assess the wine’s ageing in 5 and 10 years time. This is why it is so important to start today,” said Silvano Bresciani, Franciacorta Consortium President.

“Creating this laboratory, made possible by our fertile partnership with the Franciacorta Consortium and sector experts such as Istituto Oeno Italia, enables us to achieve two of the primary objectives of this ITS higher education diploma put forward by our academy,” underlines father Luigi Cavagna, Rector of Accademia Symposium. “On one hand real interaction between the school and local bodies and firms, on the other an opportunity for our students to get an inside view of the whole vinification process in a practical, active way, improving their training and making it easier for them to find well-qualified jobs in the sector. All this is supplemented by a fertile partnership with the teaching staff of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore di Piacenza e Cremona’s faculty of agricultural, nutritional and environmental sciences who are making their knowledge and enthusiasm available to the sector.”

The new Via dell’Industria 36/A laboratory in Erbusco (BS) will be the site of microvinification and experimental wine storage thanks to spaces made available by Istituto Oeno Italia. The microvinification area replicates the wine production process on a small scale, launching experimental vineyards in the DOCG area covered by this research.

“The grapes are pressed and put into specific glass containers for first fermentation in a controlled environment thanks to the VinPilot system which records the data right through the process. Once the first fermentation is over the must is moved to steel containers (Kegs) to be stabilised in cold rooms and subsequent for tirage in glass bottles for the second fermentation. Each single microvinification will be at most 34 litres. There is also a small laboratory for the base analyses required to establish the chemical parameters to ensure that these are within the range required by the regulations.” These are the words of Mario Falcetti, head of the Franciacorta Consortium’s Research and Development working group.

A disgorging and packaging line has also been set up in the experimental storage area. The bottles are stored facing down after remuage, and the whole cycle from lees removal to final packaging takes place here. This will also be used to train the Accademia Symposium’s students, helping them to learn the configuration, functioning and critical points in the final phase of the long Franciacorta production cycle. Our wine estate partners will supply the wine needed for these laboratory hours, replicating the processes carried out in their wine estates.

The following spoke at the inauguration:

Father Luigi Cavagna, Rector of Accademia Symposium

Simona Tironi, Councillor for Education, Training and Employment in the Lombardy Region

Giorgio Maione, Councillor for Environment and Climate in the Lombardy Region

Lorenzo Morelli, President of Fondazione ITS Symposium

Silvano Brescianini, President of the Franciacorta Consortium.

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