VITICULTURE
"Well yes, it’s high time it was said. The success of Franciacorta is mainly due to that boy’s efforts. He threw himself into it with a raging desire for the best, for meticulous selection, for quality to extremes". Luigi Veronelli writing about Maurizio Zanella in an article appearing in the Corriere della Sera on March 12, 2000.
Like many pioneers, taking their own roads with the clarity of their inner dreams and a burning desire to fulfill them, that young man, too, was following a personal intuition. In 1979 Maurizio Zanella planted the first five rows of vineyard having 10,000 vines per hectare (2.5 acres) and in Franciacorta initiated a type of grape-growing at the time considered rash and revolutionary: very dense, with minimal distance between the vines and extreme selectiveness. And this was only the beginning of a route that Franciacorta then ambitiously undertook: distinguishing itself with the severest production regulations in terms of selectivity and qualitative rules. In addition there was Ca’ del Bosco’s fervent desire, right from the start, to make not only bubblies from its 370 acres of vineyards in Franciacorta but also still reds and whites. The decision to undertake this project in a territory fairly new to wine made it possible to choose the finest hillside properties, and Ca’ del Bosco now has vineyards more than 40 years old. It was also decided to separately vinify the grapes from different vineyards, thereby respecting the different terroirs, and to blend the wines only in the final refining stage. The territory’s natural wine vocation gives each grape variety its highest expression. And to respectfully protect this vocation, Ca’ del Bosco vineyards are tended with methods having very low environmental impact, with minimal fertilization and strictly of the organic type.
Like many pioneers, taking their own roads with the clarity of their inner dreams and a burning desire to fulfill them, that young man, too, was following a personal intuition. In 1979 Maurizio Zanella planted the first five rows of vineyard having 10,000 vines per hectare (2.5 acres) and in Franciacorta initiated a type of grape-growing at the time considered rash and revolutionary: very dense, with minimal distance between the vines and extreme selectiveness. And this was only the beginning of a route that Franciacorta then ambitiously undertook: distinguishing itself with the severest production regulations in terms of selectivity and qualitative rules. In addition there was Ca’ del Bosco’s fervent desire, right from the start, to make not only bubblies from its 370 acres of vineyards in Franciacorta but also still reds and whites. The decision to undertake this project in a territory fairly new to wine made it possible to choose the finest hillside properties, and Ca’ del Bosco now has vineyards more than 40 years old. It was also decided to separately vinify the grapes from different vineyards, thereby respecting the different terroirs, and to blend the wines only in the final refining stage. The territory’s natural wine vocation gives each grape variety its highest expression. And to respectfully protect this vocation, Ca’ del Bosco vineyards are tended with methods having very low environmental impact, with minimal fertilization and strictly of the organic type.
