About Ca’ del Bosco

Founded in 1964, Ca’ del Bosco is one of the world’s foremost producers of Franciacorta, Italy’s most revered sparkling wine from the Lombardy region. Each step of the iconic winery’s viticultural practices and winemaking process is based on a relentless commitment to excellence. The winery’s state-of-the-art cellar, unique in Franciacorta, allows the winemaking team to produce wines of the highest possible quality.

The enchanting Ca’ del Bosco story began in 1964 when, in Erbusco, Annamaria Clementi bought a little house on a hill, locally known as “Ca’ del bosc” and surrounded by dense oak forests.  It was Annamaria’s son Maurizio who would see the vision of this land and turn the two hectares around this little house into a vanguard winery. The first vintage produced from the estate would be in 1972.

The vision of Maurizio Zanella was inspired by his early trips to the great wine-producing regions of France, discovering their focus in the vineyards, the care and precision that went into each wine. Motivated to create a truly world-class winery, Maurizio has spent the last 50 years methodically growing the estate from the original 2 hectares to its current 238 hectares, making Ca’ del Bosco a key player in the growth of the Franciacorta region. In fact, it was Maurizio and the wines of Ca’ del Bosco that were extremely influential in the creation of the DOCG for Franciacorta in 1995.

Ca’ del Bosco owns 238ha under vine, each planted to grape varieties that would thrive in the very diverse soils and aspects of the Franciacorta region. The estate focuses mostly on Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Blanc, Ca’ del Bosco has always produced wine in the Metodo Classico or Traditional Method, that follows the same methods as the production of Champagne.

At harvest Ca’ del Bosco employs one of the most intense grape selection processes of any winery in the world. As the grapes are picked, they are placed into small cases that are sorted and chilled. Each bunch is then hand-selected by the winery’s experienced team before being cosseted at their “berry spa”, a unique system of bubbling water baths that meticulously remove any dirt and impurities before being fully dried of all water on the berries. Maurizio’s philosophy is to remove all outside influences(such as copper and sulfur from the organic treatments) in order to embrace the purity of the fruit.

The grapes are then crushed in the absence of oxygen and fermented in tank or small neutral oak barrels. Each wine sees extended lees contact and every detail from riddling to the bottle closures is meticulously monitored. Ca’ del Bosco has patented designs on their bottling and disgorgement lines to avoid any oxidative stress and make the cleanest wines possible. To Maurizio, quality is paramount.

The wines are then stored in their extensive stone cellars for many years on the lees, even for their most well-known wine ‘Cuvée Prestige’, which sees an average of 25 months sur lie. Ca’ del Bosco is known for a stunning range of vintage wines that are all very limited and are typically only found in the very best restaurants and cellars around the world. These include three zero dosage wines, reflecting the low sugar levels in all of their wines. The two icon wines of the estate are the Annamaria Clementi and Annamaria Clementi Rosé – named in honor of Maurizio’s mother. These wines are from the very best grapes of the estate and typically see 9 years of lees aging.

In addition to these special sparkling cuvées in Franciacorta, Ca’ del Bosco makes several very rare bottlings of white and red still wines that are typically available at the winery (note that only metodo classico sparkling wines can be called Franciacorta); however, in future releases they will be offered exclusively in the U.S. to their mailing list members.