Firriato Gaudensius, the sparkling wine that releases volcano’s energy

Perhaps not everyone knows that since some years italian winegrowers can create excellent classic method sparkling wines in Italian regions different from those known as “traditional”. Well! Today I want to tell you about an excellent sparkling wine that comes from grapes harvested on the slopes of Mount Etna, in Sicily. Of course everybody knows Mount Etna and knows where it is: it’s the highest active volcano in Europe with its 3,350 meters of altitude. All around the mountain – on different sides – the vine has been cultivated for centuries, up to altitudes of 1,100-1,200 meters.

LasteRosse, an original Classic Method from Groppello rediscovered in Trentino

I want to talk about a wine that is born from an authentic love story. It all starts in Val di Non Mountains, in Trentino, that’s an enological region of North-East Italy. Soon the dream of Pietro Pancheri and his wife Silvia Tadiello (the LasteRosse owners) becomes reality: they have created a winery that respects territory, land and traditions. In practice, they have chosen to work sustainable agriculture, to preserve the native vines and to work following the rhythms of nature with a careful look to the moon.

Fongaro Durello Pas Dosè, the new way of sparkling wine

Today I’d like to tell you about a sparkling wine that really surprised and impressed me. It’s part of the Lessini Durello DOC typology and it is, of course, a Classic Method (Champenois). But first, it seems only fair to introduce the type of grapes from which this wine is born: it is the Durella, so called because of its thick and hard skin (“Durella” meaning “hard”).

Maso Martis – The mountain effervescence of Madame Martis 2006 Trentodoc

 “We live in a house in the heart of our vineyards, and for us the transition to organic viticulture was a natural consequence of our hale, healthy lifestyle”.

This is how Antonio Stelzer and Roberta Giuriali, husband and wife, explain their lifestyle choice, natural and spontaneous, which led to the 1990 birth of the Maso Martis farm, in Martignano, at the foot of Mount Calisio, east of Trento (in the region of Trentino-Alto Adige, North-East Italy).