But in 2017, after toasting to the great success of our AETOS Spumante, produced in a pressurised autoclave barrel from vintage Sangiovese grapes alone by the Sparkling Charmat Method, we felt confident enough to take on the ambitious challenge of producing a Sangiovese spumante by the traditional method.

This is an innovative project that offers an unprecedented perspective on Sangiovese, whose grapes are usually associated with high-quality red wines.

AETOS Sangiovese Traditional Method Spumante will be launched in summer 2019, after lengthy preparation including 24-month re-fermentation and in-bottle ageing.

The La Collina vineyard, a circular bush-trained plantation in Tuscany, has been entirely dedicated to this project. The first harvest took place in August 2016, when the grapes were hand-picked, placed in small crates and gently pressed together with the stalks. Vinification was carried out following the traditional method: after primary fermentation, the wine and yeasts are put into refrigerated stainless-steel vats for the secondary fermentation stage.

Having been bottled in the spring of 2017 for the liqueur de tirage, an intermediate stage involving the addition of selected yeasts and sugars to induce slow in-bottle fermentation, the wine was stored horizontally to age at 12°C with controlled humidity for the following 24 months.

After this ageing period, the bottles will be placed upside down in special-purpose wooden racks called pupitres for the riddling (remuage) stage, involving a delicate operation that consists of rotating the bottles clockwise and anticlockwise by hand, every day for approximately one month. This facilitates the deposit of yeasts in the bidule, a small cylinder placed inside the crown cap.

Once the remuage is completed, the Sangiovese spumante is ready for disgorgement (dégorgement), namely the elimination of sediment that builds up in the neck of the bottle. At this point, it is time to choose the liquer d’expedition - a crucial step to refine the spumante and give it a unique character.

In the second half of 2019, after long, complex processing that requires experience, solid know-how and maximum attention to the tiniest detail at every stage of production, our spumante will finally be ready for uncorking and tasting.

It will be the crowning moment of an ambitious project that will owe its making – and hopefully its success – not only to the passionate, competent work of the Tenuta Sanoner team, but also to the fruitful collaboration of Josef Reiterer, an internationally-renowned expert from Cantina Arunda, in South Tyrol.

Giuseppe Basta
Production Manager