“EBB”

Elegant energy, refined concentration, radiant texture, incredibly intense length, and superb purity and precise contours, and all these qualities displayed in a magisterial harmony and proportion worthy of a Renaissance fresco: these are the main characteristics of the Franciacorta dedicated to winery founder Emanuela Barzanò Barboglio. A shimmering gold announces its delicate bead, then the bouquet initially showcases a balanced duet between a subtle florality, displaying lemon bossom and lemon grass, and a mosaic of sunkissed fruit, including mandarin, ginger, and fresh-picked apple, all aromatically enfolded by hints of menthol, black pepper, and sea spray. Fermentation of the finest Chardonnay grapes in oak barrels and the cuvee maturation sur lie for more than 36 months provide support for a texture that is enriched by the citrusy tang of bergamot and attracting force of bright fruit, on a palate supported by an Extra Brut dosage, which further heightens the delicate and aristocratic personality of this Franciacorta.

The mousse is powerful and majestic, at once lifting and delicate, yet compact and almost solid–a foaming mass that encircles the glass, lazy to disperse completely, leaving behind, almost unwillingly, a trace of pearls, with that backwards gaze of country women of a Sunday afternoon, in the hottest summers. So, here is that expected colour, more intense, more stolid, and deeper than ever. Here, too, is that austere nose, never pandering, but self-assured, frank, uninhibited. Its fruit, just at the precise point of ripeness, plus a garland of flowers, freshly cut yet perduring—unrepentingly—and fresh. As it enters the mouth, it makes its unique character immediately felt—clean-cut, assertively self-confident. Dense-salted from the very first drop, with nerviness to spare, thrusting up, out, and high. With maturity to spare as well, and a magisterial vigour. It concludes with an endless, heaven-bound crescendo that yet seems fixed aloft, proudly erect. A wine that harbours for the elect the judicious, disciplined pleasure of striving for pure emotion, an experience that grants the excitement of a revelation.

Stefano Caffarri