INSPIRATION

There are moments without words that only sensations can define, feelings that reach the heart and become the rapture, joy and beauty of a moment to be treasured deep inside. The art of wine is one such moment, a masterpiece created by the talent that few possess, in which dedication and ability blend in a magical, mystical marriage with nature. The infinite in a single drop, fruit of a slow, devoted and meticulous passion. People, like territories, have a vocation. And so it was that a fifteen-year-old boy had a lightning intuition of what life could be like pursuing it. The meeting between young Maurizio Zanella and gentle Franciacorta, when his mother moved to Erbusco and planted the first vineyard, was the initial contact with what would be the love of his life. But it was after a trip to Champagne, to the famous maisons whose wine had always fascinated and inspired him, that Maurizio returned with the unshakable idea of making something similar. What was once a house in a chestnut wood became one of the most trailblazing wineries in Italy. Since then a single principle has been defining the essence of Ca’ del Bosco: the quest for excellence.

WORDS, VALUES

TRADITION “Tractor prints in the mud attract your eye, intrigue you, remind you of the deepest secrets hidden beneath sprays of water soft as silk. You hesitate but a moment and, unable to resist this silent beckoning, intangible and fleeting, you give in [...]. And lo the wine [...] begins to speak to you, to share the fact that millenniums have passed beneath these vineyards' eyes. Only the vine observes the passing of events and silently, God-like, contemplates them from on high.And we still make use of its gifts, including the art of making wine, an art that follows us [...] in moments of pure pleasure and profound meditation, an art that we make ours earlier than any other tradition, along with mother's milk.”

Anatole Korneev

DEDICATION A word with such subtle power, intimate and so extreme. For the grape grower and winemaker dedication lies in caring little gestures that daily express a constant love for the vine and for wine. Dedication becomes total commitment throughout the seasons and the years where the art that is winemaking is concerned. Dedication is also faithfulness, not just to work but to the land as well, honoring Mother Nature to achieve a result that is savored all the more because it must be waited for each time. This translates into solicitude, care, generosity in giving of yourself to reach a goal: wine, that delightful fruit of one's devotion. You are never certain it will be as you expected, only sure that you have given it your all..

EFFORT "Earth, fire and steel. This is wine in its elementary form: twisting vines, faces etched by time, moist earth, bonfire smoke, cold metal. It's frost and mist, joy and warmth, technique and pure grit. Wine is made from more than love. You train the shoots, burn pruned runners, fill the vats, rotate the bottles. It's endless work if you aim for quality. It's teamwork and solitary concentration, the nearness of your companions in the vineyard and the lone task of riddling, striving for perfect perlage. The sky may be dark and baroque, the cellar lighting remind you of The Night Watch. The chores are never-ending, the seasons pitiless or generous, but in the end you have your wine"

Serena Sutcliffe

PASSION "Man, the vertical animal, reaches towards the sky. The vine, that for so long clung to trees, preceded him; indeed, it conquered him, as seen by the grapes with which he's loaded and by the divine drink that, with Bacchus' blessing, he gets from them. If the gods and many sacred tests have sanctified wine, its creators are earth and human passion. The vine is wild, it must be wooed and loved. Its tamers caress it, train it, direct it. In the cellar wine lives a hidden life, secret yet watched over. Step by step it becomes what it should and can be. Simple grape juice turns to red (or white) gold"

Michel Dovaz

TERROIR The term terroir evokes green landscapes, gentle hills, sunny slopes, geometric layout designed by lengthy rows, people devoted to a passion for the places and traditions of their land.A terroir is therefore a concrete, tangible place defined by many factors: geography, soil, water and microclimate. A real and life-filled concept that also has a cultural dimension tied closely to its community. Franciacorta, a morainic basin south of Lake Iseo, an excellent terroir. With, from its origins, a viticultural vocation that expresses itself in grapes and hence in wines with special organoleptic properties, inimitable and easily identified.

TIME Time is a succession of instants - theoretically infinite - that humans have conventionally divided into seconds, minutes, days and years. But time is a measure of motion, and without movement there is no life, so in absolute terms time is the measure of man. To make a great wine you must know time's value and work without haste; in the vineyard following the rhythms of the seasons to pick the grapes at perfect ripeness; in the cellar respecting the time needed for perfect winemaking. And then that patient waiting, ensuring the finest quality. Wine is therefore not just the fruit of the vine but also the fruit of time, the fruit of living.

ONCE UPON A TIME

What is the meaning of a fairytale nowadays? A fairytale is a page of ageless time, a story savored in little sips, whose characters are born from bold visions, from an idea as sure and straight as a row of vines, as clear as a dream of blown green glass. The meaning of a fairytale lies in imagination, in the skill of those who write and tell it, of those who complete it, adding a new chapter every day. The enchanting Ca' del Bosco story began in the mid-1960s when, in Erbusco, Franciacorta, Annamaria Clementi Zanella bought a little house on a hill, locally known as "Ca' del bosc" and surrounded by dense chestnut woods. The Ca' del Bosco fairytale is written in its wines, in the extensive weave of its vineyards, in the success dreamt of, desired and achieved by its author. Maurizio Zanella saw in Franciacorta the land that would generate the finest fruits, both in still wines and in premium bubblies: his winery was the first and best expression of the qualitative potential of this wine territory. A position reached thanks to the enthusiasm and passion of Maurizio Zanella who in the early 1970s became conscious of and followed his artistic vocation, becoming a leader in the Italian wine renaissance and turning a house in a chestnut wood into a vanguard winery. The splendid Ca' del Bosco tales began from this: from a dream, a fairytale born to last through time.