Bellavista Teatro alla Scala Franciacorta Brut 2021
£34.25
The wine
A lively and persistent mousse preludes a complex bouquet of elderflower and tropical fruit enhanced by flint, incense and Mediterranean herbs. Elegant and textured, with beautiful balance. The wine of honour at the Teatro alla Scala since 2004.
Made for the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, one of the great opera houses, and served there. A vintage Franciacorta from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, given long ageing on the lees, which is where the brioche and toast character comes from as the spent yeast cells break down and release their compounds.
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.






