Vineyards of the Dolomites with 2013 Castel San Michele Moscato Rosa

I was excited about the topic for this month's Italian Food, Wine & Travel group as I love the alpine regions of Italy. I've been lucky to visit a few of them and the scenery is stunning with the background of the dramatic mountain ranges including the Dolomites, Monte Bianco, the Appenines and more. 

Back in early 2015 I visited the Trentino-Alto Adige region for the first time and journeyed from Verona via train to the town of Trento, about an hour due north. I spent a wonderful day there doing what I typically love to do in visiting new towns, strolling around, checking out hidden side streets, piazzas, watching the locals interact, visiting any historical monuments or sites and of course shopping. I wanted to bring home some wines from the region of grapes that I've never tried or wines that I just wasn't too familiar with. 

Piazza Duomo in Trento

I found a great local wine shop in town and took the expertise of the store owner whom directed me over to a bottle of Castel San Michele Moscato Rosa made from the Instituto Agrario, which I'm sharing with you today. 
 

I love the Alpine backdrops!  Trento, Italy

The winery is found in the region of Trentino and is part of the Edmund Mach Foundation Farm named after Austrian Dr. Edmund Mach. that is home to 120 hectacres(about 296 acres). The land is used to grow agricultural crops and vineyards that are used mostly for research and experiments at the agricultural school and research center. 

The winery itself can found inside an ancient 12th century Augustinian monastery, San Michele (hence the name of the wine today). They produce about 30 different types of wines as well as a classic method sparkling wine. The aim of the winery is to share what the terroir of Trento represents.   

Winery at the Augustinian monastery copyright of Edmund Mach Foundation

The 2013 Castel San Michele Moscato Rosa Vigneti delle Dolomiti IGT is made from moscato rosa Becchetti land, plated in 1960, and Oberrauch land, planted in 1988. Everything is hand harvested and as I'm sure you'll see from a lot of other bloggers that many grapes of this region are hand harvested due to the steep terrains in which the grapes are grown. Very tedious, hard manual labor. They produce only about 1,500 bottles of this particular wine and it's all produced in stainless steel. Brilliant ruby color with a very aromatic nose of red berries and roses. A fuller bodied wine with a hint of baking spices. Regardless of the sweetness to this wine there was plenty of acidity to create a nice balance. The Institute recommends pairing it with forest fruits and berry pies and I'd even recommend some chocolate dishes. 
grapes. The grapes are grown on hills from their

I hope for those of you that have never ventured to northern Italy, and furthermore the alpine region, that you put that on your bucket list. So far for me the most amazing place I've visited up there was the Aosta Valley, Valle d'Aosta. You must check out some of my pictures of Aosta if you need convincing.
 
Join us on Saturday, August 5th at 10 am central on twitter to chat about the Alpine Wines of Italy. Look for the hashtag #ItalianFWT. Everyone is welcome to join us for the chat, which includes questions and answers from these top wine bloggers. Ask your questions, share your travel experiences or clue us in on your favorite Alpine wines.  In time for the chat, the following writers will publish their posts on the topic. Look forward to:

SUSANNAH from AVVINARE will cover White Wines from Aosta Hit High Notes

KATELYN from THRONE & VINE presents Divinely Alpine - Exploring the Wines of Elena Walch

LAUREN from THE SWIRLING DERVISH tells the story of Hearts on Fire: A Summer Tradition in Alto Adige

LYNN from SAVOR THE HARVEST recommends The One High Altitude Wine REgion you Must Try #ItalianFWT

CAMILLA, of CULINARY ADVENTURES WITH CAMILLA, cooks up Beef & Barolo, Two Piedmontese Darlings

JEFF, author of FOODWINECLICK! gets into Unique Mountain Wines of Alto Adige

MARTIN over at ENOFYLZ WINE BLOG provides A Taste of Lugana; 2013 Tenuta Roveglia "Vigne di Catullo" Lugana Riserva #ItalianFWT

GWENDOLYN from WINEPREDATOR writes about heading Off to the Alps for #ItalianFWT

Jill from L’OCCASION presents A Winemaker Rendezvous: Ivan Giovanett of Castelfeder. 

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Sparkling Wines: Charmat vs. Metodo Classico Method

It's Memorial Day weekend and is a perfect time to celebrate the warm weather that is upon us or if you're me you're less than 5 weeks to delivering your first born. All perfect reasons to celebrate with some sparkling wine (like we need one!)


If you're a lover of Italian sparkling wine you may or may not be familiar with the differences in some of the different varieties of sparkling wines produced throughout Italy. We're going to learn today why some of these differences exist. It's mainly because there are two styles of producing sparkling Italian wines: the charmat method and the metodo classico.

Photo by Bill Masson

The Charmat Method
The charmat method was created back in 1895 by a gentleman, Federico Martinotti, an enologist from the town of Asti in Piedmont, Italy. It was then adjusted in 1907 by Eugene Charmat, hence the Charmat method. With the Charmat method the secondary fermentation that is normally done in the bottle is done in large stainless steel tanks. This allows for higher production quantity and is a cheaper style of sparkling wine production. The charmat method produces sparkling wines that are more aromatic.

Examples of Charmat wines

Examples of sparkling wines produced in Italy with the charmat method are lambrusco of emilia romagna, prosecco of the Veneto, and Asti of Piedmont.

Metodo Classico

The sparkling wines made from the champenoise method are typically more complex. During this process the secondary fermentation takes place in the bottle as mentioned earlier with additional yeasts and sugar added. Those yeasts take the sugar and convert them over to acohol and carbon dioxide, the bubbles! Following that the wine will age on the dead yeast cells known as the lees for 24 months.

Examples of Metodo Classico

Some examples of Italian sparkling wines made in Italy with the metodo classico are from the Franciacorta D.O.C.G and those of the Oltrepo Pavese Metodo Classico D.O.C.G and Oltrepo Pavese Pinot Nero Metodo Classico D.O.C.G from Lombardia Lastly, the sparkling wines from the Trento D.O.C in the Trentino Alto Adige region also produce the metodo classico. Most of these wines are made with variations of chardonnay, pinot nero and pinot bianco.

One of the biggest differences, other than the taste and complexity of these two methods, is the consistency of the bubbles, or bollicini. Since the process of a classic method takes a long time you tend to get smaller, more consistent bubbles where those of the charmat method are bigger bubbles.

What are some of your Italian sparkling favorites? 
 

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