SoloUva

A few years ago, during a sparkling wine tasting with my good friends Nico and Giovanni, we were talking over great wines and the fact that they are produced from phenolically mature grapes.

‘Grapes are fruits, and as such they must be picked ripe’.
From this sentence comes an ambitious challenge: make sparkling wine with phenolically mature grapes, without adding any exogenous sugars, to maintain the integrity of the grape and enhance the heritage of the cultivation area. A very simple but revolutionary idea: this is the SoloUva project!

Andrea’s passion for wine goes back generations. His grandfather was a farmer and instilled a deep love of the land that inspired him to find his own way to connect with the “mother land.”

Andrea wanted to make a pure expression of Franciacorta, and was one of the first to join the TerraUomoCielo, the consultancy of producers making sparkling wine “methodo SoloUva” with Giovanni Arcari of Arcari e Danesi.

The SoloUva vineyard is located in Adro, right in the heart of Franciacorta. The vines were planted in 1985. The vineyard is 100% Chardonnay and it is farmed sustainably.

Andrea’s estate is located just south of Lago Ieso in the village of Erbusco. Because of the estates prime location, exemplary Chardonnay di Lombardia and larger acreage, SoloUva has become the calling card for the new wave of Franciacortas made by growers, with fully ripe grapes and no added sugar.

Franciacorta is a young region. They’ve only had a couple of decades of sparkling wine production, and hence only so much time to define themselves. A young wine maker like Andrea has an opportunity to invent himself.

“We believe in man’s wisdom in managing agriculture, and all its products, respectful of biodiversity and of the terroir peculiarities.”

Harvest takes place when the grapes are phenolically mature. Usually when making methodo classcio wines the harvest happens when is best for the grower, and the product can be adjusted with dossage. For SoloUva the process is postponed until whenever the grapes are ready. They are essentially harvested when you would harvest a still Chardonnay.