Franco Ziliani It was not only an oenologist, but the one who transformed Franciacorta from a marginal agricultural area into one of the winery excellence in the world. His death, at 90, marks the disappearance of one of the most significant protagonists of Italian wine, capable of moving boundaries and raising the bar of ambition.
Today, the Italian bubbles they are not more only one niche product. With almost 2 billion of toast during the 2021 holidays, the tricolor sparkling wines reached a productive value of 236 million eurosconfirming a pillar of oenological exports. Franciacorta, thanks to Ziliani’s inheritance, stands out as an example of how an ambitious vision can change the perception of an entire sector.
From the initial challenge to global recognition
Franco Zilianiborn in 1931, born in Travagliato in the province of Brescia, he was a visionary winemaker who changed the face of Italian viticulture forever.
In 1955, after the Diploma at the Enological School of Albain an Italy still in the reconstruction phase, Franco Ziliani presented himself to Palazzo Lana, residence of the noble Guido Berlucchi, with an idea as visionary as it is risky.
Berlucchi was looking for an expert to improve his still wines, but Ziliani saw the potential for a radical transformation in those moraine hills. His simple but bold question sounded like a bet: “What if we did a sparkling wine in the manner of the French?”.
From that provocation A path of research, experiments and failures was born, which culminated in 1961 with the birth of the first 3 thousand bottles of “Pinot of Franciacorta”. Not a simple wine, but the mixture that would have rewritten the rules of the classic method in Italy.
Franciacorta: a reinvented area
Franciacorta, in the heart of Lombardy, is not only a wine region, but the theater of a won challenge. Here the Franciacorta method It has become the symbol of an impeccable quality. Similar to the Champenoise method, this process provides a second fermentation in the bottle, with phases that include manual collection, aging on the yeasts and the famous remuage. The grapes used are Chardonnay, Pinot Nero and Pinot Bianco, with the addition of the herbamat for a touch of authenticity.
Franciacorta was not born to host valuable vineyards. A difficult soilapparently unsuitable for the production of sparkling wines, instead proved to be a treasure hidden thanks to the stubbornness of Ziliani.
The territory, modeled by glaciation and influenced by the microclimate of Lake Iseo, became the basis of a project that united tradition and innovation. In 1967 the DOCGseal of a quality that was more and more affirmed, with Chardonnay, Pinot Nero and Pinot Bianco as undisputed protagonists.
A legacy celebrated all over the world
2021 scored two fundamental anniversaries: i 90 years of Ziliani he is 60 years of the first sparkling wine by Guido Berlucchi. The international consecration arrived in the same year with the Guido Berlucchi ’61 Franciacorta NV Brut Rosé, included in the prestigious Wine Spectator ranking among the hundred best wines in the world.
This result is not only the result of teamwork, but also of a vision born decades earlier, when Ziliani had imagined a Italian classic method that could compete with champagne.
