Cleto Chiarli Pignoletto Spumante Cleto 2011

Winery: Cleto Chiarli

Varietal: Champagne Blend

Whilst Champagne sparkling wines are most commonly made with a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grape varietals, there are actually seven fine grape varietals allowed by French wine law for inclusion in the wines of this region. These include Arbanne, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc and and Petit Meslier alongside the others, although these four are being used less and less in the modern age. Champagnes are normally blended wines, although the popularity of single variety 'blanc de blanc' Champagnes made solely with Chardonnay grapes, and 'blanc de noir' wines made only with Pinot Noir varietal grapes are becoming more and more popular. The blending process found in most Champagnes aims to take the finest points of each grape varietal and bring them together to produce spectacular, strong yet balanced results in the bottle.

Region: Emilia-Romagna

The northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna has long been a much loved wine region, associated with many of the finest Italian wines drank across the world today. Interestingly, the region's fine reputation is nothing new, as it was considered an extremely important center for wine making and viticulture over two thousand years ago by the Romans, and also by those who came before them. Today, the mineral rich soils and warm climate of the region provide excellent conditions for cultivating vines of exceedingly high quality, and a wide range of grape varietals are grown on Emilia-Romagna's fifty five thousand hectares under vine. By far the most prominent in the region are Lambrusco varietal grapes, used to make the region's flagship sparkling wines, and Malvasia.

Country: Italy

For several decades in the mid to late twentieth century, Italy's reputation for quality wines took a fairly serious blow. This was brought about partly due to lack of regulation in certain regions, and too much regulation in others. This led to several wineries in the beautiful and highly fertile region of Tuscany making the bold move to work outside of the law, which they saw as responsible for the drop in quality in Tuscan wines. They believed that they had the expertise and the generations of experience necessary with which to make truly excellent, world class wines, and set about doing just that. These 'Super Tuscans', as they came to be known, quickly inspired the rest of Italy to improve their produce, and now, Italian wine producers in the twenty-first century are widely recognised to be amongst the best in the world. Regulation and law began to change, and wine drinkers across the globe woke up to the outstanding wines coming out of Italy, which are continuing to improve and impress to this day.