Who’s Who Which also has other strengths...

Maurizio Zanella, bolzanino di nascita, ha studiato agraria a Piacenza e poi si è perfezionato in enologia in Borgogna e a Bordeaux. Fu in quel periodo che decise che la sua professione sarebbe stata quella di produrre grandi vini nel luogo dove viveva: la Franciacorta. Missione compiuta, tant’è che il Franciacorta è stato designato Offcial Sparkling Wine dell’Expo 2015.

Maurizio Zanella, born in Bolzano, studied agriculture in Piacenza and then specialized in oenology in Burgundy and Bordeaux. At that time he decided that his profession would be to produce great wines in his homeland: Franciacorta. Mission accomplished, in such a brilliant manner, that Franciacorta was designated as the Offcial Sparkling Wine of Expo 2015.

Franciacorta is 50 years old. The Consortium was born in 1990 and collects 113 companies that work 3,150 acres of the magical land of Brescia, covering the 19 municipalities spread up and down around Lake Iseo. “We are young, two and a half centuries younger than French bubbles, we have come quite late but, in recent years, we have made giant steps”, says Maurizio Zanella, president of the Consortium Franciacorta since 2009, “In 2000 we sold 3.5 million bottles, in 2014 the numbers rose to 15.5 million. In Italy we were the last, after Piemonte, Oltrepò Pavese, Trentino. Now we are the first”.

The excellence comes from the ground, from work, from...

“From the production regulations, the most rigid in the world, including Champagne. That means, I produce fewer grapes, no more than 95 quintals per hectare, I squeeze them less, and I keep them in bottle. That’s what it is, our only aim is quality, whatever the cost. And let’s not forget about the quality of our farmers’ work”.

That’s the beauty of Italy.

“The Italians, for example, and their imagination, good taste, the ability to solve problems and their strokes of genius that are necessary to overcome the pitfalls. But above all, intransigence. And a proper example is the Consortium Franciacorta. It is not easy to build a system in Italy, but we are succeeding in doing this. Our slogan ‘Blend of Passions’ is not only made of simple words, but a reality verifiable in numbers and results”.