Lombardy is one of Italy's largest and most populous regions, located in the north-central Part of the country. It's home to a handful of popular and well-known wine styles, including the Bright, cherry-scented Valtellina and the high-quality Sparkling wines Franciacorta and Oltrepo Pavese Metodo Classico. Lombardy is Italy's industrial powerhouse, with the country's second largest city (Milan) as its regional capital. Despite this, the region has vast tracts of unspoiled countryside, home to many small wineries that produce a significant portion of the region's annual wine production of 1.
2 million hectoliters. A vast and geographically Complex region, Lombardy is well positioned to offer a wide range of wine styles. There are five DOCGs, 21 DOCs and 15 PGIs. The Oltrepo Pavese area stands out as one of the most important and best known, not only for its sparkling wine Oltrepo Pavese Metodo Classico DOCG, but also, more recently, for its Pinot Grigio, which since 2008 has its own independent DOC (Oltrepo Pavese Pinot Grigio).
Franciacorta, the second of Lombardy's two DOCG sparkling wines, comes from the booming and highly regarded vineyards between Brescia and Lake Iseo.
Pinot grigio is a grey grape variety mutated from Pinot Noir. It has its origins in Burgundy, where it is called pinot-beurot in reference to the colour of the grey robes worn by the monks of the region. Established in Alsace since the 17th century, pinot grigio was called tokay until 2007. It is made up of bunches of small berries that vary in colour from pink to blue-grey. It is particularly well suited to the continental climate because it is resistant to the cold in winter and to spring frosts. This variety also likes dry limestone soils with plenty of sunshine in the summer. pinot grigio is well suited to late harvesting or to the selection of noble grapes, depending on the year and the concentration of sugars in the berries. Pinot grigio wines are distinguished by their aromatic complexity of white fruits, mushrooms, honey, vanilla, cinnamon, etc., and their great finesse. In the Loire Valley, pinot grigio is used in the Coteaux-d'Ancenis appellations. It gives dry or sweet wines with pear and peach aromas.
sparkling wines from the region of Lombardia go well with generally quite well with dishes of veal, pork or game (deer, venison) such as recipes of capon stuffed with morels, flammekueche (with laughing cow) or rabbit with tomato.
On the nose in the region of Lombardia often reveals types of flavors of earth, citrus fruit or floral and sometimes also flavors of tropical fruit, tree fruit or red fruit. In the mouth in the region of Lombardia is a with a nice vivacity and a fine and pleasant bubble.
