The Technology Behind Ca’del Bosco Franciacorta

Ca’del Bosco Franciacorta producers recognise the importance of technology in wine-making and pride themselves on their systems.

It took seven years to complete the curent Ca’del Bosco cellar, immersed in the greenery of the vineyards and the Franciacorta woodlands. It was enlarged from 10,000 to 20,000 sq m. Owner Maurizio Zanella’s goal was not to double output but to create a cellar equipped with the latest technology.

Technology that assists the grapes and reduces wine treatments to a minimum. Its purpose is to enhance the characteristics of excellent raw material, intervening with external agents as little as possible.

The exterior was designed with the specific intent of blending in harmoniously with the landscape, without disturbing the natural design of Franciacorta’s morainic hills. Thanks to its wave-like profile the building follows the slope of the vineyard and terminates in inclined poles like those at the end of the rows of vines.

The cellar rises to a maximum height of 12 meters above the ground and is colored like the bark of trees in the coldest months of winter: greenish-gray. The interior is brand new, reinvented and designed with great creativity and love. It was conceived to welcome visitors and guide them through the production process.

The process begins with delivery of the grapes, which are immediately sorted by vineyard provenance and kept in refrigeration cells prior to further selection and pressing.

The presses were designed to Ca’del Bosco specifications. The grape must flow into the fermentation vats through gravity, avoiding the pumping that stresses musts and wines. This specific decision of the enologist, the use of natural gravity, continues through various stages of cellar work so that no pressure is exerted that could make the fruit lose its original components and the wine its natural fizz.

Two lifts of 10,000-liter capacity each take the wine from the lowest to the highest level of the cellar, rising silently through four stories inside a new-conception curved stainless steel mesh cage. Blue lights play on the steel, artfully enhancing its shininess and neutrality, and the entire route features different colours symbolically linked to the different production stages.

This becomes more fascinating still when the route winds through the refinement areas, whose glass walls reveal the deep Franciacorta earth, highlighted by white light. A special nebulizer system maintains the right amount of moisture needed for the wines’ correct aging in wood. The tour becomes a tour through ideal enology: stainless steel, wood, stone, glass. Through a glass window wall you can view the bottling process from outside, as if gazing into a “house of glass”.

The technological heart of the winery is designed with meticulous care, artfully lit and framed by the contrasting greenery of the park.

Back inside, the feeling of a cellar vanishes and nature erupts into the room.

www.cadelbosco.com