A glass of bubbles

As I mentioned in the last post we had enjoyed a bottle of the Franciacorta Brut prior to having dinner. It was a perfect accompaniment to the fatty salamis that were on offer because the sparkling breaks down the fat. It is like serving stewed apples with pork, the acids in the apple help the digestive system break down the pork fat - its good for you, some would even say healthy!

I’m a firm believer in starting a dinner party off on a sparkling – actually this is second by the girls at work, I’m sure if health and safety allowed them they would start a working day off with a glass of bubbles!

Dad must be enjoying the flavour of a Franciacorta at the moment because there has been a new bottle of the brut opened every night for the past few days. One evening we had a friend from Italy over. She said that when visiting a winery in Franciacorta the winemaker told her ‘Don’t ask for a Champagne when you want a sparkling ask for a Franciacorta’.

To give you a brief history on the wine industry, sparkling wine has for centuries been know as Champagne. The French believe that Champagne should only come from the Champagne region in southern France, so other countries who have the same style of wine have different names – an example is the Franciacorta region in Italy call their sparkling Franciacorta.

But I believe if it is in a Champagne bottle with a champagne stopper once that cork pops it doesn’t matter if it’s a sparkling, a champagne, a brut or a Franciacorta – they all taste good chilled.

Something that made me smile is Franciacorta rough translation from Italian to English is Little France.

What is your favorite sparkling wine?