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The name Franciacorta conjures up a distant past suffused with a mystery which local people love to speculate about. The most plausible theory is that the area’s history is bound up with the presence of Cluniac and Cistercian monks who came to Franciacorta from Cluny in the 11th century. They were very powerful monasteries which reclaimed and farmed vast swathes of land in the area and thus succeeded in obtaining exemption from customs in around the year 1100. These lands were Francae Curtes, that is, lands free of taxes. Francae Curtes led to the toponym Franzacurta which was mentioned for the first time in the Brescia communal archives in 1277.
Franciacorta’s history is a very long one with deep roots in an area in which vines have been a constant. From the Roman era to late antiquity and up to the apex of the Middle Ages soil and climate favoured vine growing.
It was the interplay between Franciacorta’s history, wine and culture that produced one of the world’s first books on naturally bottle fermented winemaking techniques and their effects on the human body. Printed in Italy in 1570, the book was written by Brescia doctor Girolamo Conforti and significantly entitled Libellus de vino mordaci. This doctor, whose studies preceded those of illustrious abbot Dom Perignon, illustrates the widespread dissemination and consumption of wines with bubbles at the time, wines which he called ‘mordaci’, i.e. lively and frothy.
And there’s more. He also applied his tasting expertise to his descriptions of them, going as far as to judge them ‘tangy and lively tasting wines which do not dry out the mouth in the way acerbic and austere wines do and do not soften the tongue like sweet wines’, before going on to list their therapeutic effects. For Conforti – also a connoisseur of French wines – the bubbles in Franciacorta wines increased in winter before decreasing and subsiding as the summer went by.
The bubbles were thus caused by the boiling of the must or rather its fermentation which was to be controlled, even then, to ensure that its ‘light, tangy gassy emissions’ were not lost.
These erudite considerations may well have been the basis for the earliest sparkling Franciacorta winemakers deciding to use barley to accentuate and prolong fermentation.
A Napoleon era survey in 1809 provides a snapshot of the over one thousand hectares of land then specialising in making ‘mordaci’ wines and a similar number of hectares of vineyards mixed with other crops. The years that followed saw winemaking growing constantly until it long outstripped local demand and generated the first wine sale businesses. This was the state of affairs in which, in the early 1960s, young oenologist Franco Ziliani made the first Pinot di Franciacorta vintage, thus triggering the production of the first ante litteram amateur sparkling wines, the predecessors to Franciacorta’s modern, codified winemaking.
In the wake of the first Protected Designation of Origin appellation in 1967, in 1995 Franciacorta became the first Italian area and wine made with a second fermentation in the bottle to achieve Protected and Guaranteed Designation of Origin (DOCG) status. The name on today’s labels is Franciacorta, a single word which conjures up geography, production method and wine.
TIMELINE
2021
Franciacorta became Michelin Destination Partner.
A record-breaking year for Franciacorta with over 20 million bottles sold.
2019
Franciacorta became 1000 Miglia and 1000 Miglia Green race wine partner.
2018
The Giro d’Italia cycling race had a Franciacorta Stage.
Silvano Brescianini was elected President of the Franciacorta Consortium.
2017
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the DOC, a research project was entrusted to Domenico De Masi’s sociological research studio which sought to outline Franciacorta’s aspirations and prospects and the challenges facing it over the next decade.
The production regulations were amended and a new indigenous grape variety, Erbamat, added.
2016
Lake Iseo and Franciacorta hosted Christo and his Floating Piers, one of the long-awaited late works by this renowned Bulgarian artist, a three-kilometer walkway covering a surface area of approximately 70,000 square metres.
2015
Franciacorta was made Official Sparkling Wine for Expo Milan 2015 with an exclusive wine bar on site.
Vittorio Moretti became President of the Franciacorta Consortium.
2012
A partnership with the Fashion chamber of commerce was inaugurated and Franciacorta became Milan Fashion Week’s official sparkling wine.
2004
30th December 2004. On explicit request by the Consortium, a decree regulating the use of the Talento wording by Italian VSQPRDs and VSQs excluded the Franciacorta DOCG area from making use of this option in its appellation. This amounted to an express acknowledgement by the Ministry of Franciacorta’s excellent quality and distinctive characteristics.
2000
The Strada del Franciacorta (Franciacorta route) was set up for the purposes of promoting and developing the area’s tourist potential.
On 22nd-25th September the first Franciacorta Festival took place, an event which is still today celebrated in September across the entire area.
Claudio Faccoli became President of the Franciacorta Consortium.
1997
On 1st January the first bottles of Franciacorta with the unmistakable DOCG state seal were released.
1995
The Consortium’s logo became the sole Franciacorta DOCG identifier and it was the first Italian brut to obtain ‘guaranteed’ status. In September of the same year, the Consortium approved the Franciacorta DOCG regulations. The Satèn trademark, which only Consortium members are entitled to use, was registered.
1992
A viticultural zoning study was set in motion.
1990
On 5th March, the voluntary Consortium for the protection of Franciacorta wine was set up, with registered offices in Corte Franca. It had 29 producer members. Its President was Paolo Rabotti.
1961
The first-ever bottle of Franciacorta was produced, thanks to oenologist Franco Ziliani.
1809
The Napoleonic Land Registry certified the existence of almost 1000 hectares of vineyards in Franciacorta, far more than would have met the needs of the 40,000 inhabitants at the time, thus demonstrating that, even then, the wine was not made only for local consumption but also for sale.
1570
responsibly