Visit the Wine Cellar Ricci Curbastro in Franciacorta

With the recent expansion of the wine cellar, built in 2002, it reaches a size that is 23 times the original one built in 1946 by Riccardo and Evelina Ricci Curbastro, which still constitutes the heart of the newer wine cellar.
Built on three levels, this allows for taking advantage of gravity when loading the grapes in the presses, after the selection process. This process becomes particularly important, in light of the fact that the Disciplinary that regulates the Franciacorta foresee for the mandatory manual harvesting of the grape bunches, in order to respect the integrity of the same. The use of pumps or augers would, in fact, make such a careful harvest useless, damaging the grapes and extracting the must just as the grapes are sent to the soft pressing process.

It is, again, the force of gravity and not the pumps that push the must toward the barrels or the wines when being moved towards the bottling area located on the third level.
It is precisely level -3, intended for barrels and bottles, which was built 15 meters ( 49 feet deep), so as not to require any energetic action, in order to maintain a constant, natural temperature of 15°C (59º F) , necessary for the aging of the wines and the proper preservation of hundreds of thousands of bottles of Franciacorta that are preserved there.
It is normal to think of how much energy is saved, but also how a wine cellar that, although modern in structure, still retains all the charm of the old system of building below ground level for wine making.