A Sparkling Pilgrimage

A viticultural awakening in Lombardy is luring visitors to discover what might be Italy's best-kept secret: Franciacorta, a bright new chapter for bubbly wines.

In northern Italy, in the Brescia Province of Lombardy, lies a fountain of youth. The fresh winds blowing in off the Alps have something to do with it; the lake, too, the way it stretches down from the mountains like a shimmering green tail. Polished mahogany speedboats glint across the surface, skimming past bathers cooling off along the shore-a scene from The Talented Mr. Ripley were it not for the noticeable lack of Hollywood here. There's little glitz, no remnant aristocracy. What the villages cradling Lake Iseo have are vineyards, lots and lots of them, and a young, well-heeled wine trail luring Champagne-tier oenophiles from all over Europe.

You won't find many Americans, likely because Franciacorta-the sparkling, exceedingly clean wine that shares the region's name is a relative neophyte among its peers. For centuries gentlemen vintners used the glacier-born soil to produce simple whites and reds for their tables and to share with neighbors. It wasn't until the late 1950s that one of them became restless: Hobbyist Guido Berlucchi enlisted friend Franco Ziliani to help him improve upon his still white wine. A burst of experiments and a bubbling of energy followed (yeast, rest, rotate, repeat), shaking the emerald foothills awake. The wines began to sparkle.