The world’s top sparkling wines are produced by the classic method, the famous Champagne method: wines of several grape varieties, grown in different areas, and often of different vintages, are assembled together, then fermented a second time in the bottle by adding special yeasts and sugar.

Towards the end of winter of each year, the winemaker evaluates the characteristics of each wine of that vintage and decides the proportion of each to blend together, with the goal of a balanced and distinctive cuvée that will represent that producer’s “style.”

Berlucchi utilises chardonnay, pinot noir, andpinot blanc for our Cuvée Imperiali spumanti, with each sparkling wine demonstrating its own unique personality and sensory qualities.

The “liqueur de tirage,” a syrup of special yeasts and sugar, is then added, and the cuvée is bottled. In the cellar’s darkness the yeasts transform the sugars into alcohol and CO2, the second fermentation that gives sparkling wine its lively effervescence and an additional degree and a half of alcohol.

At least two years of ageing on the yeast lees follow, while the wine slowly develops those distinctive aromas of yeast and crusty bread. Riddling then concentrates the spent yeast, which is finally disgorged.

In the disgorgement process, a bit of wine is frozen in the neck of the bottle to capture the yeast remains, the metal cap is then removed, and internal pressure (six atmospheres) expels the ice and sediment, with the wine now perfectly clear.