All That Sparkles

Choosing the Right Bubblies for Every Occasion

Sparkling wines are fun, festive, and food-friendly. How can you possibly make a toast without one? From the snowy Alps to sunbaked Sicily, Italy offers a bounty of bubblies at every price point. To help you sort through the options, we offer the following primer. Bottom line: Don’t overthink it. Just have something on hand for whenever the holiday spirit strikes. 

Gino, Bruno, and Mauro Lunelli, owners of Ferrari

If you want to be classy

It’s been poured at the Oscars, Emmys, Venice film festival, and Metropolitan Museum’s lavish costume gala. The name itself evokes class: Ferrari. This winery has been setting the standard ever since its founding by Guilio Ferrari in 1902. As a young eager beaver, Ferrari travelled from the alpine hills of Trento to France to learn his craft. Champagne became his guiding light. Once home, Ferrari planted chardonnay and followed the same methode champenoise (called metodo classico in Italy). This is the most labor-intensive way to make bubbles, involving a secondary fermentation inside the bottle, years of contact with the yeast (lees), then removing that yeast bottle by bottle. Suffice it to say, such manual labor adds to the cost. But the results are impossible to replicate using shortcuts. Nothing beats the fine perlage of a metodo classico wine—the streaming strands of bubbles that resemble pearl necklaces—nor the biscuity aromas that develop after years of interaction with the yeast.

Ferrari’s longest aged sparkler is the stuff of dreams: Giulio Ferrari Reserva del Fondatore, which spends an entire decade on the lees. Topping $100, it’s priced on par with vintage Champagne. But Ferrari also makes a lovely Perlé line ($39) with five years on the lees, as well as a very good, basic Brut ($24), aged two years before degorgement. 

Courtesy Franciacorta consortium, photo Aldo Padova

Alternately, the region of Franciacorta offers similarly classy sparklers. Franciacorta wine also uses the metodo classico technique and is based on chardonnay and pinot noir (Champagne’s primary grapes), with pinot bianco an optional addition. Being Lombardy, the terrain is lower in elevation than Trentino, with a slightly warmer climate, thus its sparklers are fleshier and fruitier. Top of the class is Ca’ del Bosco. I’m particularly smitten with their Franciacorta Cuvée Prestige Rosé ($57). But you can easily find a good Franciacorta in the $20–$25 range. Names to look for include Bellavista, Berlucchi, Contadi Castaldi, Ricci Curbastro, Il Mosnel, and Barone Pizzini.

Courtesy Prosecco DOC consortium

If you’re going casual

In a country that prides itself on regionality, Prosecco is beloved in all corners of Italy. Restaurants welcome guests with complementary flutes. It’s ubiquitous at sidewalk cafés. It’s liberally dosed in cocktails. In sum, it’s popular and not too precious—just the ticket when going casual.

Hailing from the Veneto, Prosecco is made from the native glera grape. Unlike its fancier brethren, Prosecco’s bubbles are made in bulk, inside large pressurized tanks called autoclaves. That economy of scale lowers the price considerably. (For those keeping track, this tank technique was developed and patented by Italian enologist Federico Martinotti in 1895, but it’s now known as the Charmat Method, named after French inventor Eugène Charmat, who developed it further.) 

If metodo classico’s bubbles are like mesmerizing strings of pearls, Prosecco’s are like seafoam—random and quick to dissipate. Prosecco’s lack of extended lees contact also means you’ll find no yeast-derived aromas here—no yummy brioche, no toast, no biscuit. 

But hey, at $12–$15, who’s gonna complain? Prosecco has a fresh, easy charm and an appealing bouquet of golden apple, pear, and stone fruit.

International success has led Prosecco’s borders to expand relentlessly; vineyards now sprawl onto flat plains that are less than ideal for grapes. Pushing back, quality producers have established a pecking order. The best areas have their own appellations (along with higher prices): Asolo is the smaller DOCG zone, while Prosecco Conegliano Valdobbiadene Superiore DOCG is the better known. The crème de la crème comes from a bulbous hill named Cartizze, considered to be Valdobbiadene’s grand cru. Other hill-specific subzones, or Rive, are also being promoted as top of the quality pyramid. 

Lately there’s been some interesting experimentation with Prosecco col fondo, a trendy phenomenon worldwide. The style harkens back to grandpa wine, made without the assistance of autoclaves or modern filtration. Col fondo versions referment inside the bottle, but aren’t disgorged, so the lees remains on the bottom. They can be cloudy, like unfiltered beer or cider, and typically have a gentler fizz. Be the cool kid on the block and bring one of these to the party.

Reliable Prosecco brands include Mionetto, Bisson, Bisol, and Villa Sandi. You can also find Prosecco in petite 187ml splits—handy when it’s just two of you toasting.

Panettone, just begging for Moscato d’Asti

If you’re following Italian tradition

The most common sight in northern Italy during the holidays is a tall box of panettone. And wherever you find this sweet bread loaf, irresistibly studded with raisins and orange peel, a bottle of Moscato d’Asti is sure to be close by. As inseparable as reindeer and sleigh bells, this pairing is a sentimental favorite—as is Moscato d’Asti itself. If you ever want an Italian to wax poetic about their first experience with wine, they’ll talk all dreamy-eyed about Moscato d’Asti. How grandpa offered a little taste. How it was slightly sweet and the fizz tickled their nose. How they wanted more! Moscato is the gateway wine for generations of Italian children. 

It’s easy to see why. It’s low in alcohol (5–6%), being only partially fermented—so nonno knew he wouldn’t get little Gianni drunk. The grape sugars that remain make it sweet, but not sticky. Sweet like a table grape, which moscato is as well. Moscato d’Asti is one of the most aromatic of wines, with heavenly scents of orange blossom, honeysuckle, and apricot. And it’s light. To paraphrase Jello, there’s always room for moscato.

Labels to look for include Saracco, La Spinetta, and Marenco. As for dessert, don’t stop with panettone. Moscato d’Asti goes well with biscotti, fruit tarts, and berries with whipped cream.

Bellei’s Lambrusco di Sorbara in cellar

If you want to drink pink

There’s a certain breed of wine nerd, ahem, wine lover, who gets great joy from exploring the obscurest of the obscure. Boy, do I have a wine for you! Everybody’s heard of Lambrusco, but most people don’t know there are fantastic rosé versions lurking out there. All are made from the Lambrusco di Sorbara grape, one of six siblings in the Lambrusco family. Let’s call this one the freckle-faced redhead. It’s the lightest in color, so going down the pink path makes sense. It’s also the most acidic and fragrant—two pluses for a good rosé, or rosato in Italian. Imagine a bowl of wild strawberries on a patio surrounded by violets and rose bushes. That’s the smell. There’s often just a hint of sweetness—‘off-dry’ in wine lingo—which brings out the red-berry character and makes it a superb aperitif. I’m partial to Lambrusco di Sorbara Rosato from Bellei, a small family-run winery that uses the metodo classico technique. But there are others out there, if you look.

Brachetto and dark chocolate, for a Valentine’s Day treat

If you’re serving chocolate

Red wine with chocolate? Steer clear! There’s one exception: Brachetto d’Acqui. Imagine the love child of Moscato d’Asti and red Lambrusco, and you get the idea. The brachetto grape is as aromatic as it gets, with intense strawberry, red raspberry, and floral notes. Being made the same way as Moscato d’Asti, Brachetto d’Acqui is equally low in alcohol and deliciously sweet and fresh. Remember what I said about jello? This applies here, too: It’s so light there’s always room, even after gorging on a holiday meal.

Brachetto d’Acqui can be frizzante or spumante; bottles with a champagne cork signal the latter, with higher atmospheric pressure. Personally, I prefer the gently sparkling frizzante style, which better showcases the pretty fruit. Good examples are made by Braida and Marenco. But if you prefer to pop a champagne cork, look for Castello Banfi’s Vigne Regali ‘Rosa Regale’ Brachetto d’Acqui.

As its name suggests, Brachetto d’Acqui comes from the Piedmont town of Acqui Terme. Known since antiquity for its hot sulfur springs (Acqui Terme means ‘thermal waters’), the town boasted sizable Roman baths. Perhaps that Roman connection gave rise to a Brachetto d’Acqui legend: It’s said that Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, successive lovers of Cleopatra, brought her gourds of vinum acquense, as she believed it unleashed the passions of her lovers.

Try it yourself this Valentine’s Day! I guarantee you’ll find Brachetto d’Acqui and dark chocolate a match made in heaven. The passion part I leave up to you.

Published in the Winter 2020 issue of Tastes of Italia.