Wine
Cantina della Volta: Italian sparkling wines well worth knowing
If you are a sparkling wine connoisseur, you probably know about Lambrusco wines, sparkling wines from the region of Emiglia Romagna in Italy.
My first wine tasting of a Lambrusco was just recently at the food and wine fair in Zurich, the Gourmesse.
And when you think of Lambrusco, one name comes to mind, says Giorgio Angiolini, shareholder of Cantina della Volta, it is Christian Bellei. Christian Bellei is the great-grandson of Francesco Bellei, who started the first generation of four to produce high quality Lambrusco wines.
Giorgio Angiolini showing a bottle of Lambrusco wine, Cantina della Volta 2009
With a family in the wine business, he was destined to follow what the other men in his family had done. He grew up around vineyards, learning about wine and making it. With his father, Giuseppe “Beppe” Bellei, having passed away in 1998 and his grand-father recently, he is now the last to pursue the Bellei tradition.
He started working in the wine business with his father in the middle of the 1980’s. More than a decade later in 1998, Christian Bellei started having economic problems. He tried to survive until he made a decision to join a bigger group in 2003. The group rented his grand-father’s winery and equipments and bought the trademark. But the cooperation did not last long.
Christian always wanted the best quality for his wine bottles, labels and corks but the new management payed less attention to these “details”. Christian Bellei did not agree on buying the cheapest models. For him it is important to have a nice looking bottle as the look is as important as the content.
Angela Sini, CEO of Cantina della Volta winery with Angiolini Giorgio at the Gourmesse 2011 in Zurich
Giorgio explains that during this time Christian was unhappy. “He understood that he was no longer free to make wines ‘his way’ and revealed his discontent to a group of friends very fond of him and his wines. Angela and I were among this group of friends and, all together, decided to establish a new Company to enable Christian to make wines ‘his way’.”
So in 2010, Bellei joined the new group, who wanted to buy the old family winery, naming it Cantina della Volta. They got the building and the vineyard located in Ricco di Serramazzoni, in the South of Modena. The grapes of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier grow on hilly land at an altitude of 500 to 700 meters. The vineyard was not something new to Christian as his father had brought back some wine trees from the Champagne region twenty-five years ago and planted them there, explains Giorgio.
Vineyard for Cantina della Volta in Ricco di Serramazzoni, Emiglia Romagna- copyright Cantina della Volta
In addition to Giorgio Angiolini, with whom I talked to at the Gourmesse and his wife Angela Sini, CEO of Cantina della Volta, other people such as Alexandra Townend and Maurizio Genoni owners of the Parkhotel Waldheim in Wilen in Switzerland, gave funds to help Christian Bellei.
Christian Bellei accepted to join Cantina as the group promised he could continue making his wines the way he had always been doing them in the tradition of his ancestors. Giorgio knew Christian’s father quite well. Christian Bellei is today part owner of Cantina della Volta.
With the money of Cantina’s shareholders, the old winery of Francesco Bellei was restructured, renovated and newly equipped allowing Christian to make high quality wines.
The Cantina della Volta 2009 ‘Il Mattaglio’ is highly awaited. Everyone wants to know how good the wine will be. Will it be as good as expected? Out of the 12,000 bottles made, already 7000 were so far pre-sold in Italy when it was presented to the sales-force in July this year.
When we met, Giorgio was on his way back to Modena for the disgorgement of the “Il Magglio” vintage 2009. This is done to remove the yeast. The bottles will be on the market today on November 17th.
Giorgio has confirmed back to me that “the disgorgement of ‘Il Mattaglio’ (our first white brut 60% pinot noir and 40% chardonnay) went well and we are very pleased with the result. Smooth perlage, good acidity and minerality, impressive start in the mouth and enough lasting.”
I love the color of the Lambrusco Cantina della Volta (2009), an amazing bright ruby color! Giorgio first tells me that what makes it so ruby is the length the skin stays on the skins.
Cantina della Volta 2009 sparkling wine in a glass
The wine has been rewarded in the Wine book “Le guide de l’expresso 2012 I Vini d’Italia”. Cantina 2009 is rated with the best Lambrusco wines with rating of 18/20 and it also got number one for best quality price wines in his Region Emilia-Romagna.
The appearance of the wine is not the only thing I like about Cantina della Volta but also its fruity aroma. The Cantina 2009 was made with 100% Lambrusco di Sorbara grapes. Christian Bellei made his wine with grapes he bought that year. He made various tastings and tried to find the best grapes for the perfect blend.
The grapes were harvested in August 2009, fermented and then stored for six months in steel tanks at 10 degrees. Then it was put in bottles with yeasts for a second fermentation that took 30 days. Then the wine rested for at least 9 months.
The Cantina della Volta was presented in Italy in April 2010.
During my second visit at the Gourmesse, Giorgio invites me to another glass of Cantina 2009. “Look at this perlage”, he says while tilting his glass and turning it gently so I could see the nice bubbles of the Lambrusco.
Where is Cantina sold at the moment?
It is sold in Italy, in Singapore, Costa Rica and can be found at the Parkhotel Waldheim in Wilen am Sarnersee, Switzerland. Soon it will available in some Berlin restaurants as they have a distributor.
Cantina Della Volta 2009 & 2010 are made with Lambrusco di Sorbara grapes. These grapes are high in acidity. Bellei makes two types of Cantina, one sparkling and one
frizzante:
- Lambrusco di Modena Spumante D.O.C. a sparkling
wine made with Methode Champenoise (Metodo Classico) - Lambrusco di Sorbara D.O.C “Rimosso”, a frizzante
Now, what is the difference between frizzante wines and sparkling wines?
It all depends on how much pressure is given on the bottle. Up to 2,5%, it is frizzante. That’s why, explains Giorgio, Champagne bottles can have two types of corks: a normal cork you can twist to open for frizzante wines and a mushroom cork for sparkling wines because it has more pressure.
Frizzante wines have yeasts inside. It is not disgorged. For this reason they sell less.
When I ask Giorgio which Cantina sells better, the frizzante or the sparkling, he replys: “sparkling Cantina della Volta because a frizzante wine has residue at the bottom, it is not transparent and for some people they don’t quile like it.”
Cantina della Volta frizzante is not sold abroad.
Also coming out will be a Cantina della Volta Rosé in March 2012.
Christian Bellei trying his wine Cantina della Volta – copyright Cantina della Volta
As an amateur of Demi-Sec I try to find out at the Gourmesse if Christian Bellei makes some. I was not the only one who asked about Demi-Sec. Once the group was approached and asked by Germans if they could make Demi-Sec. Christian Bellei does not make any Demi-Sec sparkling wines because he does not want to appeal to all wine lovers. Giorgio says if they wanted to they would have to change their entire philosophy. They harvest their grapes at the end of August to have less sugar and more acidity. Demi- Sec is produced by adding 28 grams of sugar to the bottle when it is disgorged. But Giorgio continues “sugar covers the quality of the wine”. Sometimes they harvest end of September. It all depends on the weather. If it is hot like in 201o and 2011, they harvest sooner.
If you wonder how long you can keep a Lambrusco wine before it starts declining, it is three years. However a 2009 Cantina della Volta Spumante can be kept until 2016.
Today Christian Bellei uses for Cantina della Volta a bottle similar to the Champagne bottles in France. Giorgio tells me that in the Champagne region, only 25 Champagnes can have the same bottle each year. The bottle used by Bellei is unique in the world and no one else can use it.
I learnt so much about Lambrusco wines, about Cantina della Volta and wine maker Christian Bellei. It is almost if I had already visited the vineyard in Modena!
