Guido Berlucchi

Berlucchi at Identità Golose NY and Chicago 09/10

The fifth edition of the iconic Identità Golose culinary congress will be presented at Eataly, New York, from October 9th to 12th and Chicago, October 14th-16th. The congress brings together some of the finest names in international haute cuisine to host cooking seminars and 5-course pairing dinners. Berlucchi Franciacorta is proud to be sponsoring this year’s U.S. tour, and will present various vintages of their acclaimed Franciacorta in dinners and seminars throughout the conference.

During Identità Golose, Berlucchi is proud to introduce the award-winning, Berlucchi Riserva Palazzo Lana Satèn 2006 from the Franciacorta maison. "It's my favorite Franciacorta," admits Cristina Ziliani, Berlucchi Director of Communications, who also will be present at Identità NY and Chicago. "The name Palazzo Lana Satèn is inspired by the place where Guido Berlucchi, noble, and my father Franco, winemaker and inventor of Franciacorta, met for the first time. It is a reserve of rare elegance, just from Chardonnay grapes, that rests for more than six years on the lees", continues Ziliani. "I am proud to present our Satèn for the first preview in the States: with its alluring fragrances, it will seduce the American public." For the first dinner at “La Birreria” on Friday, October 9th (NY), the Berlucchi Riserva Palazzo Lana Satèn 2006 will be paired with the antipasto course from Chef Ugo Alciati and Chef Danny Imbroisi, “Gnocco di Zucca” and on Saturday, October 10th (NY) it will be matched with the antipasto course from Chef Massimo Bottura and Chef Lorenzo Cogo, “Caviar Back The Future.”

Throughout the cooking seminars in New York and Chicago, the Berlucchi Franciacorta '61 Rosé and Berlucchi Franciacorta '61 Brut will be paired with a variety of dishes from chefs including Rosanna Martial, April Bloomfield, Monosilio Luciano and Lorenzo Cogo. To highlight the versatile and food-friendly aspects of Franciacorta, the wine will be paired with dishes ranging from Dorade in Lemon and Pistachio Oil (Chef Bloomfield, Oct. 11th) to Chicken and Pistachio Ravioli (Chef Cogo, Oct. 12th) to Roasted Cauliflower with Oregano, Olives and Grapes (Chef Lee Wolen, October 16th.)

Berlucchi Franciacorta Rosé '61 will also be poured as an aperitif at the dinner at “La Birreria” on Friday October 10th, served with “Baby Cake of Grana Padano,” an aperitif designed by Chef Danny Imbroisi. For the 5-course dinner in Chicago at “Il Baffo” on October 14th, Berlucchi Franciacorta Brut ’61 will be paired with the first course from Chef Davide Oldani, “Zafferano e Riso alla Milanese".

Guido Berlucchi, descendent of the Conti Lana de’ Terzi, made Pinot del Castello from grapes grown in the Castle of Borgonato vineyard, a white wine that showed instability in the bottle. His friend Alessandro Borghesi recommended a young and energetic oenologist, Franco Ziliani.

It was spring 1955. Ziliani went to the Palazzo Lana Berlucchi, and while promising his host to solve the Pinot del Castello stability problem, proposed creating a classic-method sparkling wine in Franciacorta.

The handsome mansion, the elegant figure of Berlucchi, and the ancient underground cellars had inspired Ziliani, who had glimpsed the possibility of realising his boyhood dream of producing a bottle-refermented sparkling wine. Berlucchi accepted the challenge, and in 1961 three thousand bottles of Pinot di Franciacorta were corked up.

Franciacorta was born, and the judgements of the first to taste it were so encouraging that the next year Ziliani created Max Rosé, Italy’s first classic-method rosé, dedicated to Max Imbert, Guido Berlucchi’s friend and a great lover of sparkling rosés.

Giorgio Lanciani joined Berlucchi and Ziliani; his is the credit for the oval label that has become fixed in the public mind as the maison’s iconic image.

Public appreciation of the new brand grew, and in 1967 Pinot di Franciacorta became Cuvée Imperiale. In just a few years, the name Berlucchi had become synonymous with sparkling wine, festive toasts, and everyday pleasure.

The Berlucchi vineyard in Franciacorta comprises five hundred hectares of estate and growers’ vines, an impressive viticultural holding that is managed with precision agricultural practices.

High-density vineyard plantings, together with spurred-cordon pruning, careful cover-cropping, and pre-harvest cluster-thinning, ensure a low number of high-quality grape clusters. For our winemaking, we can rely on the powerful intangible of our expertise and on state-of-the-art technology, which coax the absolute finest from our grapes. We have the most-advanced, high-quality press centre in all of Italy, with eight inclined-plane presses for a delicate and gradual pressing of the Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Rapid and careful harvesting and pressing ensure musts that will become fresh, fragrant, and long-lived Franciacorta base wines.

The musts are sub-divided into four fractions, which are then fermented separately in stainless steel or oak barrels. Some of the base wines, after undergoing malolactic fermentation, are given bâttonage, which re-suspends the spent yeast in the wine, bringing increased aromatic complexity. 

Palazzo Lana Berlucchi, rising alongside the wine cellar, displays a transitional architecture dating to the early sixteenth century, when the residences of the local nobility opened to the external world, but cautiously, still mindful of long armed clashes during the Middle Ages.