According to the available sources, it is possible to say that the Moretti family was present in Erbusco, the country became the beating heart of the denomination Franciacorta docg, since 1400. Certainly at that time it could not be assumed that those areas would become so important for Italian viticulture and for the production of sparkling wines and in fact, in 1967, the founder, Vittorio Moretti, had created a construction company, the Moretti Building on Human Values, which for a strange fate had specialized in the construction of cellars. The experience accumulated in the first decade of activity, combined with the love for wine, will lead Vittorio to build, in 1977, also his first winery, Bellavista, and a few years after the second: Contadi Castaldi. The name of the winery comes from the terms “Contadi” with which they indicated, in medieval times, the small territorial units of Franciacorta, destined to the agricultural production of excellence for their high vocation to the purpose, and “Castaldi”, the name by which the nobles who were entrusted with the government of those territorial units were called.
The study of the territory had revealed a range of soils so heterogeneous as to make it necessary to create another winery to vinify those areas doing a completely different job than Bellavista. Around the 60s Vittorio Moretti had bought, for personal reasons, a quarry that over time had acted as a furnace (the Biasca furnace), and it will be this furnace, thanks to its 7000 square meters, to become the Contadi Castaldi cellar.
The diversity of the vineyards, already mentioned, meant that the 100 hectares of land were planted in nineteen municipalities of Franciacorta, on six macro-areas with unique and unrepeatable composition: Fine deposits, Fluvioglacial, distal Colluvial, deep Morenic, terraced Colluvial and thin Morenic.
Among the wines produced there is Franciacorta Zèro, a vintage blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in equal parts planted more than 20 years ago with a density of about 5000 vines per hectare, which are harvested between August and September, about 100 quintals per hectare. After the soft pressing, with a yield of about 65% of the weight of the grapes, the cold static decantation takes place, followed by the fermentation of 20 days at controlled temperature, and the partial malolactic one. The wine is aged for seven months, partly in steel and partly in barrique, before static cold stabilization, bottling (in May) and an aging on the lees ranging from 38 to 42 months. Once disgorged, the wine is filled with a sugar-free dosage and then it rests for another six months before being marketed.
The 2016 vintage has an intense straw yellow color with a very fine perlage, and an olfactory range that opens with notes of lychee, citron, kumquat and hawthorn, followed by nectarine, ginger, toasted almond and salty croissant. The palate, taut and fresh, is able to combine a good ease of drinking to the interesting complexity of the taste, together with a juicy creaminess; all enriched by the return of yellow fruit and croissants that accompany the sip to a good length closure.
Rating: 88/100
Want to find out what I can do for you? Click here!
