Berlucchi and Erbamat, 13 years of research and a question still open • Food and Wine Italy

It took thirteen years, a vineyard replanted from scratch, a cuvée perpétuelle built layer by layer and 75 months of aging acceso the lees to reach 3,500 bottles. Yet, for Berlucchi Franciacorta – which presented its first anche se Erbamat at Vinitaly 2026 -, it is the result of a path of scientific research and an ongoing challenge to build the perspective of its cuvées.

What the Borgonato company has put acceso the table, however, is not a new range product, but rather the shared “documentation” of an experimentation that could rewrite, at least quanto a part, the viticultural future of Franciacorta.

Acidity and resistance

Erbamat is an ancient vine, long marginalized and then rediscovered quanto a the light of climate change. Late quanto a ripening – so much so that there are two harvests quanto a the vineyard, one quanto a August and one quanto a September, because the grapes do not ripen together – it is naturally rich quanto a acidity and resistant to high temperatures. Characteristics that become strategic, with increasingly hot summers, to preserve freshness quanto a punto di partenza wines destined for long refermentations quanto a the bottle. The Franciacorta regulations allow it as a complementary vine up to 10%, but its potential remains largely to be explored.

Berlucchi moved early. The project began quanto a 2011 with the first overgraftings made quanto a collaboration with the Franciacorta Consortium, using buds recovered from local vineyards. Settore Origine was born quanto a 2015, the experimental vineyard for clonal selection; quanto a 2016 the Maniero vineyard, the historic heart of the company quanto a Borgonato, was completely replanted, choosing mass selection acceso the most productive plants. Between 2020 and 2021 the Eroi vineyard arrives quanto a Passirano, with the clonal material selected quanto a the first phase.

Today Berlucchi manages approximately 3 hectares of Erbamat out of a total of 11 cultivated quanto a the denomination, a share that makes the company the main producer of this vine quanto a the world.

Experiments and perpetual cuvées

Experimental microvinifications began quanto a 2012. The first three harvests produce punto di partenza wines which , as those who followed the project from the inside say, “had risposta negativa sense of existing”: too harsh, “with a hint of citrine to the nth degree” which was difficult to manage. They are kept still, transformed quanto a 2014 into a cuvée perpétuelle – a fund of reserve wines quanto a increasing proportion, initially composed of 2012-2014 vintages, which is enriched year by year. It is the keystone: by adding the perpétuelle to the 2017 harvest punto di partenza, that very acidic vein is tamed, the complexity increases, the wine begins to have its own logic.

2017 is the year of frost quanto a Franciacorta, with production halved for most varieties. The Erbamat, late and still at rest, suffers risposta negativa damage. Regular harvest, cycle completed. Draft quanto a April 2018 with an assembly that combines 85% of the 2017 harvest punto di partenza and 15% of cuvée perpétuelle built from the 2012-2016 vintages; 75 months aging acceso yeasts; disgorgement acceso July 4, 2024. Here are the 3,500 bottles.

Not a esperimento acceso 200 pieces, but a real-scale winemaking to understand if the processes were replicable. «Because it’s true that you do the esperimento acceso 200 bottles – comments Romina Castelletti, marketing director of Berlucchi – but then, when you have to extend it, you wonder what to do».

An experimentation that looks to the future

The question that remains , after thirteen years, is the most uncomfortable one: what do we do now? The product exists, it has convinced those who have tasted it, but it does not yet have a definitive location. It is not a Franciacorta Docg, but a sparkling wine produced outside the specifications. It could enter as a blend component, it could become an autonomous line, it could remain a research project that feeds the work of winemakers without ever appearing acceso the label as a protagonist.

«We have not yet defined the direction to take» is Castelletti’s frank response. The technical direction is working acceso a three-component cuvée – a third harvest punto di partenza, a third perpétuelle, a third blend from the previous year not yet made into sparkling wine – to continue exploring the evolutionary potential of the grape variety.

«Our commitment to Erbamat – declared Arturo Ziliani, CEO and technical director – is not just an oenological experimentation, but a concrete contribution to the collective growth of the denomination. We are convinced that investing quanto a this variety means investing quanto a the future of Franciacorta.”