Bellavista Alma Assemblage 3 Franciacorta Extra Brut
£42.25
The wine
A bright, fine-beaded Franciacorta with aromas of citrus and Mediterranean flowers, leading to a deep, dry and mineral finish that confirms its Extra Brut style.
Alma Assemblage is Bellavista’s house Franciacorta, and each Assemblage is a new blend rather than a vintage. Assemblage 3 is built mostly on Chardonnay (89%), with 10% Pinot Noir and a touch of Pinot Bianco, from the estate’s vineyards around Erbusco. Like Champagne it is made by a second fermentation in bottle, then aged for at least 30 months on the lees, with part of the base wine matured in oak. Residual sugar is under one gram per litre, so it is a genuinely dry, precise sparkling wine.
The producer
Bellavista
View all Bellavista winesVittorio Moretti founded Bellavista in 1977 at Erbusco in the heart of Franciacorta, beginning with a few hectares and building to 207. The name translates as beautiful view.
Franciacorta is Italy's answer to Champagne and is made the same way: a second fermentation in the bottle, extended ageing on the lees, and the same grapes, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir with a little Pinot Bianco. The appellation's rules are in places stricter than Champagne's, requiring longer minimum lees ageing for its non-vintage wines, and the wines are made in far smaller quantity. The region sits at the foot of the Alps above Lake Iseo in Lombardy, where moraine soils left by a retreating glacier give the drainage and the minerality.
Bellavista is among the two or three names that made the appellation's reputation, and the range is deliberately expressive rather than austere, with generous lees ageing and a proportion of oak fermentation. The still Curtefranca whites come from the same estate under the region's table-wine appellation.
