After the 52nd harvest, another milestone in the history of Ca' del Bosco was celebrated last year with the expansion of the vineyards and the completion of the groundbreaking new winery. Time to look back and take a closer look.
Of course, the Ca' del Bosco winery and the name Maurizio Zanella probably don't need to be explained to anyone when talking about Italian winemaking and its "Rinascimento". Zanella has shaped, enriched and continually fuelled Franciacorta, the wine-growing region in Lombardy that has enjoyed official DOC status since 1967, with his legendary sparkling wines and later also with his still wines. The journey began with the first vineyard, which was planted in 1968. Zanella was still a minor, and his mother Annamaria Clementi had to sign and provide the guarantee for the loan agreement. "This will ruin us," she is said to have said, and in fact the venture cost money at the beginning. A lot of money. The father, who was successful in the logistics business, turned a blind eye and let his son Maurizio do as he pleased. But Maurizio Zanella's fatherly friend, the well-known wine author and critic Luigi Veronelli, always encouraged him to do something spectacularly good. Attention would follow if you were among the first to try something new, Veronelli told him. He was right. Step by step, things went uphill, including in terms of quality. "Veronelli was a philosopher. An anarchist. He taught me the true values of the soil," says Maurizio Zanella, who understood early on that the start-up phase would require not only money but above all time. A lot of time. Because in Champagne, the experience of producing sparkling wine is over 250 years ahead. Be that as it may. Until the 1980s, Ca' del Bosco cultivated "only" 13 hectares of vines with great passion, mainly Pinot Noir, Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay, as in Champagne. And now we are taking the big leap, which is also ushering in a new phase in the company's history. Today, Ca' del Bosco has 280 hectares of vines, spread across 11 of the 19 municipalities in the appellation. Area is one thing, but the consistent focus on certified organic cultivation is the far more decisive strategic element when it comes to the future of the house in the chestnut forest. "We are not saints and it is profane, but the most important asset of a wine-growing company is its own soil. Land costs an enormous amount of money, and if you do not preserve your asset but gradually destroy it, then you are an idiot. You have to protect the most valuable thing; it is an investment in the future," says Zanella, who studied agronomy and learned his oenological knowledge in Beaune and Bordeaux and still heads the company today as president.
Zanella is driven by improvements. Innovation, technology, know-how and courage have always taken him where no one has gone before. With the completion of the new, extensive winery, a long-held wish of his and all of the company's business partners has now come true. The place is as unique as the art that enriches it, because art and architecture, i.e. the surroundings, also have a positive effect on wines that by their nature require a long storage time. The new temple in Erbusco has become sensational - and you almost have to call it a temple. It was designed and built by the Falconi architectural firm, which has been working with Ca' del Bosco since the 1990s and knows the philosophy of the house. The result is an architectural feat whose structures are designed to blend harmoniously into the surroundings. However, the new cellar also represents a new era in terms of production. Ultra-modern and designed to preserve and use the full potential of the harvested grapes in the best possible way. Zanella would not be Zanella if he had not done everything in his power to be at least two steps ahead of everyone else here too. Of course, the project was only made possible thanks to the united will of all Ca' del Bosco partners, i.e. the Marzotto and Zanella families, who have always been convinced of the potential of the area. And this potential is now to be brought out even better in the house's wines. The grapes and the uniqueness of each plot are at the heart of all processing. Since 2008, the multi-stage washing lines, where the grapes are first washed, showered and gently dried after the harvest, have demonstrated this striving for perfection - but this is just one example. All possible off-notes are to be excluded, because only with absolutely clean grapes can fresh, pure-toned base wines be produced, which over time will be absorbed into the various cuvées. Fine, clear and fruity, that is the house's style, which is of course most impressively manifested in the Cuvée Prestige. In the new cellar, an unforgettable space has been dedicated to it. It is in the shape of a gigantic bottle standing on its head. The "walls" consist of over 33,000 empty, illuminated Cuvée Prestige bottles. At the bottom, 23 meters below the ground, you can look through an opening into the new maturation room of the Cuvée Prestige, where up to 4 million bottles are stored. Other highlights include the sloping vintage tunnel, which takes visitors into the historic barrique cellar at an accelerated perspective. The visit becomes a multisensory sensation, because in addition to all the other impressions, there are also these background noises, designed by sound designer Riccardo Caspani, which lead guests past the historic rooms of the cellar and lure them to the entrance of a vault where the riddling tables are located. Below them and through them, the cellar ceiling is illuminated to form a starry sky. Fascinatingly beautiful, just like the impressive passageway in which the Vintage Collection, i.e. the vintage Franciacorta reserves, are stored. The Vintage Collection includes the Dosage Zéro, Satèn and Extra Brut cuvées, while the Annamaria Clementi cuvées have of course always had a very special room, a dome in the heart of the Ca' del Bosco. Yes. The time is ripe to find time for a visit.