Enrico Gatti Franciacorta Brut Nature
-
Enthusiast
Wine -
Suckling
James
Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Wine Enthusiast
Yeasty aromas of bread crust, yellow apple, candied lemon and nectarine peel carry over to the palate alongside an elegant perlage. Made with no added dosage, it finishes crisp and bone-dry with a quenching close.
-
James Suckling
Lots of sliced-lemon and white-peach character follows through to a full body, with a soft texture and a fresh finish. Lively, clean, focused and pretty.
The winery started out as a single vineyard, one hectare in size, which was planted in 1975. Since then the winery has grown to include seventeen hectares, 42 acres, under vine. The vineyards are located at 656-820 feet above sea level, where the vines are Guyot-trained and grow on Franciacorta’s classic morainic terrain.
In 1984, the founder’s children, Lorenzo and Paola Gatti, together with the Paola’s husband, Enzo Balzarini, began to collaborate in the winery and released the first vintage, in 1986. In conjunction with this new collaboration and ambition, the underground winery was gradually expanded and stocked with state-of-the-art, computerized and temperature controlled equipment. The winery’s renovation was finally completed in the spring of 2001.
The Gatti family work closely with enologists Domenico Danesi, Andrea Rudelli and Alberto Musatti – who style the wines together with Lorenzo Gatti and Enzo Balzarini – and with agronomist Roberto Messedaglia. Together they have implemented a rigorous program which focuses on carefully orchestrated quality rather quantity.
A term typically reserved for Champagne and Sparkling Wines, non-vintage or simply “NV” on a label indicates a blend of finished wines from different vintages (years of harvest). To make non-vintage Champagne, typically the current year’s harvest (in other words, the current vintage) forms the base of the blend. Finished wines from previous years, called “vins de reserve” are blended in at approximately 10-50% of the total volume in order to achieve the flavor, complexity, body and acidity for the desired house style. A tiny proportion of Champagnes are made from a single vintage.
There are also some very large production still wines that may not claim one particular vintage. This would be at the discretion of the winemaker’s goals for character of the final wine.
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.