THE WAR OF ITALIAN BUBBLIES: THE FRANCIACORTA CONSORTIUM CLAIMS ITS UNIQUENESS AND DISTANCES ITSELF FROM THE ‘SPUMANTE FORUM’ AND THE PROPOSALS FOR THE SECTOR LAUNCHED BY VALDOBBIADENE LAST SEPTEMBER

The war has begun between Italian bubblies. The declaration was made by the Franciacorta Consortium in a recent note in which it distanced itself from the rest of Italian spumante producers stating, “we are not spumante, enough with the confusion”. In other words, Franciacorta is Franciacorta and nothing else.
A firm position that was taken in response to the proposals for the reorganization of the world of Italian spumante that emerged last September during the ‘Spumante Forum’.
The message that had been launched by Valdobbiadene during the forum had been that of reaching a sort of harmonization of the designation of spumante wines on labels, with the goal of offering more clarity for consumers.
“The council of the Consortium for the Tutelage of Franciacorta” – read the note – “has examined the question and has decided unanimously on its firm and contrary position in regards to the hypothesis. The Consortium has illustrated its position to the Minister of Agricultural Politics, Paolo De Castro, recapitulating the objective motivations from which it comes”. The Consortium thus claimed its rights to its own identity in respect to a general definition of spumante. A motivation determined by the fact that “Franciacorta is a unique and unrepeatable territory. And in as much as the Franciacorta product is an expression of that which identifies the territory, method, and wine”.

For these motives the Consortium for the Tutelage of Franciacorta sustains, “its net and decisive position of absolute extraneousness from that which could eventually occur in the world of generic spumante. For this reason, we peremptorily refuse to be incorporated into an adjective for spumante..”
And, finally, Franciacorta’s note demanded, “the understanding, the responsibility, and the capacity to respond when confronted with whatever provocation and attempt to camouflage, awkwardly or artistically, its uniqueness”.

Leonardo Roselli