In Vitro Fermentatum
Tenuta La Riva shares the great passion for sparkling wines typical of our area, but since its beginning it was decided to dedicate the production to bottle fermented wines only. In this way we can ensure obtain finer wines with a very delicate perlage.
Learning from the great French masters, adding a little of tradition inherited from our grandparents, to create what we, with a little pride, like to call the COLLI BOLOGNESI TRADITIONAL METHOD.
Traditional Method
The art of Champenoise Method
Tradition and knowledge, developed for centuries in the North of France, then spread all over the world. Art of recreating the so-loved bubbles through a second fermentation of the wine inside the same bottle in which it will be consumed. And praise to patience, because even once the fermentation is over, the wine must rest, in contact with the exhausted yeasts, for a long, long time. Someone chooses to wait 10 months, someone 12; we decided that at least 24 months were necessary to ensure that the yeasts themselves could release the desired aromas and let the bubbles became fine enough.
When it is time, the sediments are removed through a la volèe disgorgement and nothing but the same wine is added to fill the bottles. Only in this way can we preserve the natural flavours and aromas of this nectar that we love so much.
Ancestral Method
Our grandparents wisdom
The so-called ‘art of help yourself’, we can call it the way we want. When our grandparents had no airtight vessels, isobaric bottlers and anything else we have available today, to have a little sparkling wine in the glass they had to use some creativity. So? Since the bubbles are produced during fermentation, it was sufficent to bottle before the fermentation itself was finished, so to trap a little of them inside the bottle. With the spring and the first heat, the remaining sugars and yeasts favored this process, so that the final wine was a little “sparkling”. And hazy, since there was no way to filter it.
Today the process has evolved, more controlled, to avoid unwanted phenomena, but it allows us to have wines with very particular flavours, where constant contact with yeasts gives body and characteristics truly peculiar to these wines, elegant, but also intense. Two wines in one bottle !!
THE REST
The Cave
The wine, about 9 months after the harvest, is enriched with yeasts and sugars (grape must) which will allow the second fermentation and, immediately after, bottled. It is the moment for resting, at least 24 months in our cave, so that the fine bubbles that distinguish our sparkling wines and the typical aromas of this method can develop.
REMUAGE
Turning the bottle “Upside-Down”
The bottles of wine destined to become TRADITIONAL METHOD, when it is time, are gradually brought into vertical position, thanks to a special machine called “Gyropalette“. In this way the sediments gradually accumulate in the neck of the bottle, from where it will be easier to remove them. This procedure, which was once done by hand and lasted about 6/8 weeks, now takes place in about a week, with no loss in quality.
DéGORGEMENT
Removing the Sediments
The last phase of the production of TRADITIONAL METHOD sparkling wines DEGORGEMENT. A special machine uncorks 2 bottles at a time, in a way called “à la volée“. The sediments are expelled by the pressure inside the bottle, more than 6 atmospheres. The machine is calibrated to close immediately after the uncorking, without excessive loss of liquid or pressure. The same bottle is filled with wine of the same type (ZERO DOSAGE sparkling wine, “brut nature“, or “pas dosé“). At this point the bottle can finally be corked with its characteristic mushroom cap and, within a couple of months, it is ready to be consumed.
Opening Time
MON – FRI
10:00 – 12:00
15:00 – 17:30
SAT
9:00 – 12:00
SUN
Only by request
