Metodo classico from the Langhe with forty-five months on the lees — nearly four years of waiting before the first bottle is sold. Chardonnay with bread crust, a fine mousse and Piedmontese tension.
Bright golden yellow with a fine, persistent mousse that holds in the glass. The nose opens on ripe peach and apricot, with the unmistakable bread crust of long lees ageing alongside it and a trace of hazelnut behind. The palate is fresh and supple at once: the bubble is small and creamy rather than sharp, and a saline touch keeps the attack taut. The fruit stays present right through the middle and carries into a finish that runs on markedly longer than this price level suggests. Serve at 6 to 8 degrees in a glass wide enough to let the aroma work; a narrow flute sells this wine short.
Cantina Francone has worked out of Neive, in the heart of Barbaresco, since 1892. Five generations on, Marco and Fabrizio Francone run the family estate, whose reputation rests above all on the Gallina hill: a south-facing cru listed on Renato Ratti's historic map of Barbaresco crus.
The estate's sparkling tradition is older than the fame of its Barbaresco. Chardonnay from the higher parcels around Neive provides the acidity a metodo classico needs; lower down the grape would turn soft. Picking is by hand in early September.
Whole bunches go gently into the press, the must is clarified and fermented cool. The wine then goes into bottle with yeast and sugar for the second fermentation and stays there for forty-five months.
Four years of waiting before there is anything to sell is an expensive choice. It is also the only way the fruit marries the yeast aroma instead of disappearing beneath it.
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