Blog: Franciacorta | Spumante (1/4)

The tradition of sparkling wine production in Franciacorta has very deep roots indeed, and it is of little importance whether it began before or after sparkling wine production in other wine regions. What is important is that it is an original, oenological process, codified as early as the 14th century, aimed at producing sparkling white wines that are more exquisite than ordinary wines.

The name Franciacorta refers to a gently hilly area in Italy that includes 18 municipalities in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy. The boundaries of the territory are given in the east by rocky and morainic hills, in the west by the river Oglio, in the north by the shores of Lake Iseo and the last foothills of the Rhaetian Alps and finally in the south by the flat alluvial strip located at the end of the hills, delimited by the state road of Bergamo-Brescia. Looking at the Franciacorta wine area from above, one notices a double morainic amphitheater. This was formed during the last ice age due to a large glacier that, coming down from the Valcamonica, created the basin of Lake Iseo, and with its moraines, the present strips of hills.

On these hills, grapevines were already present in distant times. Proof of this are findings of grape seeds dating back to prehistory and testimonies in the classical authors Pliny, Columella and Virgil. The name 'Franzacurta' appeared for the first time in a decree of the Eighth Book of the Statutes of Brescia in 1277, which contained an order for the municipalities of Gussago and Rodengo to repair the bridge over the river Mella in the locality of La Mandolossa 'pro utilitate Sua propria et omnium amicorum Franzacurta'. Whoever received this order 'for his own use and for all the friends of the Franciacorta area' knew therefore exactly which areas belonged to the Franciacorta region that would have benefited from a repair of the bridge. This testifies that the name was used much earlier. It is probably related to the power of those monastic farms (Rodengo, Provaglio, Rovato) that were founded by the Cluniac monks and were exempt from the obligation to pay tithes to the Bishop of Brescia. They were therefore free farms (Ital. 'cortifranche'), which were called by the Latin term 'francaecurtae'. The first topographical representation of the Franciacorta region with this name dates back to a map of 1469, whose author is unknown and which is now kept in the Estensian Biblioteca in Modena. - Gerardo [TS10/23]