“As opposed to champagne, which heavily relies on marketing and global mass-scale market penetration of its middle-average segment quality bottles, Italy’s top spumante … [comes from areas of] Northern Italy where the particular terroir, expertise in vine growing and the surrounding nature combine [to create] a high-end product,” says Italian wine expert Giorgio Bindi.

The fizzy battle between France and Italy has been going on for quite some time, but following this year’s awards upset the competition is definitely heating up. The French may excel at promoting their champagne bottles and sticking together when national interests are at stake, says Bindi, but the power of Italy’s bubbly lies in its exclusiveness and prestige.

French champagne faces its toughest competition from a fertile patch of land, once a former swamp, in northern Italy dubbed Franciacorta and which has named the native spumante. A consortium ensuring tight regulations unites more than 100 wineries scattered across green hills around the picturesque town of Erbusco.

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The winemaking tradition dates back to ancient Roman times but flourished in the Middle Ages, thanks to monks, who recovered the marshes for rural use and kick-started the wine business. In exchange for their hard labour all monasteries in the area were granted tax exemptions and privileges, hence the original name of the region “Curte Franca” (Franciacorta), referring to a tax-free kingdom.

Here, mineral-rich vineyards grow out of siliceous, clayey extinct glaciers that have melted across millennia leaving the soil fit to grow a special, healthy bubbly. Cantinas are in medieval chapels, Renaissance villas and ancient undergrounds. Families of winemakers with blue blood have sharpened wine skills, passing the know-how across generations of heirs who have never abandoned the prosperous lands.

“Few know that Franciacorta has even more prestige than [the region of] Champagne. It’s a superior fizz made with the classic method. Yeast ageing takes longer [than] French bubbly, from 18 to at least 60 months – almost 5 years – for top Franciacorta Riserva bottles, the sort one keeps for special celebrations and anniversaries,” says aristocrat winemaker Fabio Lantieri de Paratico, whose ancestors inhabited a hilltop castle where the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri once sojourned. “These terraced vineyards and the spellbinding scenery [are] said to have inspired Dante’s structure of hell in The Divine Comedy,” says Lantieri. “Franciacorta is more than a sparkler: it’s a blend of history, culture, the arts.”

Human labour is another key factor in ensuring such a great fizzy wine. Franciacorta grapes are solely hand-picked and there’s a higher concentration of them in each single bottle when compared to champagne and other sparklers. It’s also the only bubbly wine that has come up with a special variety specific to the territory: Alongside the traditional dry brut and the pinkish sweeter rosé, amateurs can toast with a glass of delicate, golden-coloured satèn suitable for the delicate palates of those who don’t like the bubbles to be as explosive as champagne’s.

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“Satèn hints to the Italian word ‘silk’ because it lingers on taste buds and envelops one’s throat and tongue with a silky sensation. Satèn is perfect to accompany fish such as salmon, that’s why the Scandinavians love it, but it’s also great with sushi and sashimi. It’s a far cry from the aggressive bubbles of Champagne,” says Emanuele Rabotti, owner of Monte Rossa, one of the oldest wineries in the region.

Rabotti has turned drinking spumante into a clever game to promote his brand. His motto is “the Franciacorta that breaks”. Each cork has a number as in billiards, so the eight is the winning ball, the white breaks them all, and so on. Each also has a meaning: Number five is “enjoy”, one is “conquer”, nine is “dream”, seven is “kiss” and 12 means “love”. Such a strategy pushes drinkers to buy more of his wine, as the prized number eight is in every 224 bottles.

The natural setting contributes to making Franciacorta bottles unique, adds Lantieri. The vineyards grow inside an amphitheatre-shaped valley enclosed by the mountainous Alps and Lake Iseo, that act as barriers protecting the vines from the cold winds, thus keeping constant temperatures both day and night. The soil, due to the traces left by old glaciers, still oozes out minerals with a high level of acidity that guarantee a top sparkler.

Franciacorta wine has been renowned for its digestive and reinvigorating properties ever since the Renaissance, when noble families sojourned in the area for a detox break or ordered stacks of boxes to be sent to their lavish palaces.

What makes Franciacorta’s sparkling production so elite is its limited production: it’s not an intensive vine cultivation but one of extremely high quality, says Lantieri. Producers are allowed to make only a restricted number of bottles each year from limited acres of land, which makes these labels all the more desired and exclusive.

The use of pesticides and fertilisers in Franciacorta is practically down to zero and vehicles and tractors are banned, so men do most of the work on their own feet, using bare hands like in the old days. It’s an eco-friendly bubbly. Renewable energy sources are used inside wine estates while producers constantly monitor the soil’s organic matter levels to maintain the right balance.

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It’s not just Franciacorta giving the French a run for their money. Champagne has other rivals to fear in Italy. “Another two areas with a long-standing wine tradition make sparkling wines of supreme excellence that are conquering upscale markets,” says Bindi.

The hills surrounding the northern city of Trento produce fizzy bottles that have obtained the Italian denomination of controlled origin (DOC, a sought-after label), while in Piedmont’s High Langhe region a new sophisticated, translucent variety of spumante has recently been launched. The High Langhe are part of a Unesco World Heritage Site, where the landscape has been sculpted across centuries by the patient work of farmers and winemakers. Now, other than red Barolo, there’s also a fine sparkling wine on offer.

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