Sparkling wines of Piemonte: Villa Sparina Metodo Classico Blanc de Blanc (Gavi DOCG)

In that I am currently writing a series on Italian sparkling wines, I want to taste as broad a range of those wines as possible but it is especially tough to acquire them in Central Florida. As I was calling around yesterday, I found that Tim's Wine Market (Downtown) had bottles of Villa Sparina Metodo Classico Blanc de Blanc in stock; I hightailed it over there immediately to acquire a bottle for tasting purposes.

Villa Sparina is produced at the Villa Sparina Resort and Winery, located in Monterotondo, the heart of Piemonte's Gavi DOCG. The facility was founded by the Moccagatta family in the 1970s. The location of the DOCG and the winery are shown in the following two slides.

The estate sits on 100 ha, 70 of which are dedicated to grapes for the production of Gavi and Barbera.

Monterotondo is a cru for the Cortese grape of Gavi, the grape that is the basis for the Villa Sparina Metodo Classico Brut. The grapes are grown in vineyards resident at 250 - 300m altitude with mainly south and southwest exposures and soils of clay and marl. The vines are trained Guyot and are planted 4000 vines/ha density.

The grapes for the base wine are fermented in stainless steel tanks over a 3-week period. Second fermentation is carried out in bottles with the wine spending 36 months on its lees.

The wine had an initial breadfruit nose upon opening which gave way to a sweet white flower/fruit, citrus, citrus skin, pineapple and a steadily increasing pepper spice. Peach on the palate with a lemony-lime acidity. Medium weight, not as crisp as I prefer. Sparing, emaciated bubbles. Mineral persistence -- chalky clay -- on the palate. Short finish. The taste profile falls somewhere between a Franciacorta and a Prosecco; shaded towards the Prosecco end of the spectrum.

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