Winemaker Notes
Annamaria Clementi is the product of an unremitting quest for excellence in the vineyards as well as in the cellar. In line with the Ca’ del Bosco Method, the grapes are hand-picked and placed in small crates on which a code is immediately stamped, just before they are cold-stored. Each bunch is selected by expert eyes and hands, and then goes through our exclusive “berry spa,” a special whirlpool-like wash for grape bunches, consisting of three soaking tanks, followed by thorough drying. The base wines are obtained exclusively from free-run juice. Alcoholic fermentation takes place only in small oak casks, made of selected wood seasoned for a minimum of 3 years. There, the wine remains on its own lees for six more months, during which malolactic fermentation takes place. No compromises, no concessions are acceptable: only wine from the best barrels of the 22 base wines is drawn off to go into Annamaria Clementi. A pair of flying tanks transfers the wine by gravity flow from the barrels to the blending tank. Unhurried lees contact continues for more than 8 years to shape the wine’s unique sensory profile. An absolute Franciacorta. Disgorgement takes place in the absence of oxygen using a unique system designed and patented by Ca’ del Bosco. The procedure avoids oxidative stress and the need for additional sulfites, making Ca’ del Bosco Franciacortas purer, more appealing and longer lived. Finally, every bottle is marked individually to ensure its traceability.
Blend: 76% Chardonnay, 9% Pinot Blanc, 15% Pinot Noir
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
. When wine is this good you must stop and just appreciate how much work goes into making something so delicious. The wine opens with spiced apples, freshly baked pastry dough, acacia honey, oak spice and wet stone. The palate is giving yet still holding back with stone fruit showing through with hints of hazelnut, cream and ginger.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Ca' del Bosco 2014 Franciacorta Riserva Annamaria Clementi Dosage Zéro (a blend of 76% Chardonnay, 15% Pinto Nero and 9% Pinot Bianco) ferments in small oak casks for six months and matures on the lees for eight long years. The bouquet is immediately beautiful with baked apple, brioche, pastry cream and something a little spicy, like a pinch of saffron, that gives extra pop. It shows a mid-weight mouthfeel with a whole other set of almond and bitter lemon flavors. This elegant Franciacorta manages a careful dance between nose and palate.
Ca' del Bosco is on the leading edge of the exciting new wave of Italian wine producers, making absolutely top-quality sparkling and still wines. Maurizio Zanella founded the winery in 1968, and dedicated himself to distinguishing the sparkling wines of Franciacorta. The winery owns more than 230 acres in the region, with vineyards planted to Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Pinot Nero and other indigenous Franciacorta grapes. Ca' del Bosco's reputation for sparkling wines has been secured by the excellence of its cuvées.
Situated among the gentle hills of Brescia, south of Lake Iseo, the Franciacorta region of Lombardy and its neighboring towns were historically better known for their production of firearms than wine. Maurizio Zanella has changed all of that and his talents have placed Franciacorta on the map of quality Italian wine regions. Zanella has worked to ensure the word "Franciacorta" would indicate a specific type of sparkling wine from a specific region, and would not be confused with "methode champenoise" or "spumante." In 1995, his dream came true and the sparkling wine of Franciacorta was named a D.O.C.G. to be marketed as "Franciacorta." Since the new D.O.C.G. standards require a minimum of two years aging before release, the first Ca' del Bosco Franciacorta D.O.C.G. were released to the international market in 1997.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
Containing an exciting mix of wine producing subregions, Lombardy is Italy’s largest in size and population. Good quality Pinot noir, Bonarda and Barbera have elevated the reputation of the plains of Oltrepò Pavese. To its northeast in the Alps, Valtellina is the source of Italy’s best Nebbiolo wines outside of Piedmont. Often missed in the shadow of Prosecco, Franciacorta produces collectively Italy’s best Champagne style wines, and for the fun and less serious bubbly, find Lambrusco Mantovano around the city of Mantua. Lugana, a dry white with a devoted following, is produced to the southwest of Lake Garda.