Ca’ del Bosco Annamaria Clementi is an iconic Italian sparkling wine (Franciacorta) named after the mother of Maurizio Zanella, the founder in 1968 of this renowned wine project in Brescia (Lombardy). It was first made in 1979, and in 1989 it began to bear the name of her mother, who passed away in 2014. It all started when Annamaria Clementi moved to the hills of Erbusco in 1964 after buying a small property with a house in the middle. of a chestnut forest (hence the name of the winery).
Annamaria Clementi convinced her husband to have the bank guarantee the loan to Maurizio, who was a minor at the time, to boost his wine dream. She remembers her mother as “a very sweet woman, very understanding and always complicit with me.” She adds that “I dedicated our most important Franciacorta to her because without her Ca’ del Bosco would never have existed”. In this sense, she points out that “everything started thanks to her, who fervently wanted the house in the forest. She at first wanted her for the holidays, then she came with wine.
Maurizio Zanella’s passion for wine was forged after a trip to prestigious regions such as Burgundy (where he spent 1,025 francs, more than the money he had, on just three bottles of Domaine de la Romanée Conti) or Champagne.
As a child he was expelled from the two schools, private and public, where he studied. He went from communism to fascism. After his trip to France, he returned with the fixed idea of ??producing wines in Erbusco, where he planted vineyards and built an impressive winery (with an underground dome located 17 meters deep). His project was inspired by Luigi Veronelli, an anarchist journalist, philosopher, and gourmet who Maurizio Zanella credits with “changing Italy’s wine history.”
Franciacorta is a territory in the province of Brescia, bounded by the Oglio River, which flows into Lake Iseo to the north; the Mella river to the east and Mount Orfano to the south. The name Franciacorta has origins that lie between anecdotes and ancient legends and folklore. But the place name Franzacurta (free zone) means a region exempt from paying tributes. In fact, the region remained for 350 years without the obligation to pay taxes.
The designation of origin was promoted in 1967, and quickly gained popularity thanks to the commitment to quality viticulture and oenology at the service of one of the most outstanding sparkling wines in the world, although still white and red wines are also produced in the area. . In 1995 Franciacorta became a DOCG (controlled and guaranteed designation of origin).
From Ca’ del Bosco it is stated, in reference to Franciacorta, that “a destination is rarely contained in a name and, when it does, it amazes”. It is added that “Franciacorta is, in fact, a territory, but it is also the name of the wines made here”. In the sparkling wines, the queen variety chardonnay predominates, with pinot noir and pinot blanc. Producers pay an average price of between 2.50 and 3 euros per kilo of grapes. In Franciacorta there is not a single cooperative or large manufacturing industry. And the minimum aging in the bottle with the lees is a minimum of 18 months. The harvest is, obligatorily, manual.
Currently there are about 130 wineries and only about 250 viticulturists. Ca’ del Bosco accounts for 9% of the total volume of Franciacorta.
The Ca’ del Bosco vineyards cover more than 260 hectares, spread over ten different communities (Erbusco, Adro, Cazzago SM, Iseo, Paderno, Passirano, Provaglio d’Iseo, Cortefranca). Thus, they have different zones that differ in their microclimates. Some of its vines are planted up to 600 meters above sea level. They work their vineyards following the dictates of certified organic farming. In addition to chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot blanc, they work with other varieties such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc or the native erbamat (they only have 1% of this last variety, which they have planted experimentally). grapes are vinified separately.
They stand out for their elaborations with very low doses of sulfur and without dosing or very little sugar. Its sparkling wines have less than two grams of sugar per liter. 75% of its production is sparkling, and the rest still white and red wines. They make their sparkling wines following the traditional or champegnoise method and, within the Franciacorta DOCG, they have also delved into the classic Italian satèn method (Brut effervescent wines with a slightly lower bottle pressure than the traditional method, around 4 .5 bar, and aged for a minimum of 24 months in the bottle). Satèn means satin, or silky.
The 2014 harvest was marked by a cold winter, closer to an extremely long autumn. This caused the growth stages of the vegetative cycle of the vines to be advanced by approximately ten days. Weather conditions throughout the month of May and up to mid-June were favourable, with only a few showers and above-average temperatures, causing strong phenological progress. But from then on everything changed. In the last ten days of June, the high pressure conditions stopped, while the weather was dominated by continuous waves from the Atlantic, generating instability.
Between July and August, more than 400mm of rain fell, with temperatures consistently cooler than normal. This caused the growth of the vines to gradually slow down. The harvest began on August 16 with the Pinot Noir variety (pinor nero), followed by a Chardonnay from which a “perfect” harvest was obtained, which allowed them to produce sparkling wines with “surprising elegance”. The average yield per hectare was 7,800 kilos of grapes, equivalent to 3,040 liters of wine. In other words, wine accounted for 39% of the grape production.
One of the most surprising practices at Ca’ del Bosco is that they wash their grapes before vinifying them. Maurizio Zanella assures that the use of copper to fight against fungal diseases in the vineyard, or dust or pollution, transforms his wines at an aromatic level. He states that “the entire food industry washes fruit, why not do it with grapes?” To compensate for the loss of yeast from the outside of the berries with washing, they use vat feet to carry out their alcoholic fermentations.
They do not hide their concern about the effects of climate change and the scarcity of water. Following Bosch’s ‘Ca Method’, the grapes are harvested by hand and placed in small boxes on which a code is immediately stamped, just before being cold stored. Each bunch is selected by expert eyes and hands, and then goes through its exclusive “berry spa”, a special hydromassage wash for grape bunches, consisting of three soaking tanks, followed by complete drying. Its washing lines work uninterruptedly during the harvest, 24 hours a day.
They press the entire cluster. The base wines are obtained exclusively from the free run juice. Alcoholic fermentation takes place only in small, selected fine-grained French oak barrels, aged for a minimum of three years. There, the wine remains on its own lees for six more months, during which malolactic fermentation takes place.
They do not make any concession seeking the highest quality. They only select wine from the barrels of the 22 cuvées for their Annamaria Clementi. The wine flows by gravity from the barrels to the mixing tank. The disgorging is produced 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 sulphites, which makes Ca’ del Bosco Franciacortas “purer, more attractive and longer-lived”. This method allows them to reduce the use of added sulfur by up to 60%. The total sulfur dioxide of Annamaria Clementi is 62 mg/L (the maximum allowed is 185 mg/L), and no expedition liquor was added (zero dosages).
From the Erbusco winery it is stated that “Annamaria Clementi is a product that reflects the incessant search for excellence in the vineyards”. It is only made in the best vintages. In Spain it is distributed by Calidoscope. It is a Franciacorta Riserva without a dosage of sugars that, blindly, can easily be confused with a good champagne.
It is made with Chardonnay (76%), Pinot Nero (15%) and Pinot Bianco (9%). Straw yellow in color with golden reflections, clear and bright. It is very elegant, with very well integrated carbonic acid. The tiny bubbles of this millesimato draw a perfect rosary and crown, and offer a soft mousse. It shows notes of pastries, lightly toasted bread and fleshy stone fruit, with a citric and creamy touch of lemon yogurt. It is stately, tasty and enveloping. It also stands out for its great balance and meritorious acidity, which makes it especially gastronomic.
The president of the winery likes to enjoy it with eels or with pasta (of course Italian) with clams.
