The Second Fermentation

How is Franciacorta made? Always with a second fermentation in the bottle. Tank fermentation is unknown in this region. That's the technique of Prosecco, which is usually made in pressurized tanks, following a method Italian Federico Martinotti had patented in 1895 and Frenchman Eugène Charmat improved in 1907.

The process is easy to describe and demands great precision. The finished cuvée wine is dosed with a mixture of sugar and yeast, which experts call the tirage. It's then bottled, initially sealed only with a crown cap. The bottles then move into the cellars of Erbusco, Passirano or Corte Franca.

Now the yeast gets to work. It converts the sugar into a bit more alcohol and into carbon dioxide, and since the gas has nowhere to go, it dissolves into the wine. Pressure builds this way until a Franciacorta reaches about six atmospheres, roughly as much as a Champagne and considerably more than a Frizzante.

For Satèn, producers deliberately steer the fermentation differently. It stays under five atmospheres, and you can feel the result on the tongue: less fizz, more creaminess. The name recalls satin, and the wine is meant to feel correspondingly soft. This gives it a rounded impression on the palate, even though it's made dry.

Trento and Alta Langa also ferment in the bottle, but Franciacorta exists only this way: the DOCG name applies solely to sparkling wine, and still wine from the area is called something else. Anyone buying Franciacorta is always buying bottle fermentation.