Why it matters
The producer
In 1975, Renato Alberti and Elena Nulli drove to the hills above Monticelli Brusati and started planting. There was no inherited estate, no family tradition already in motion. They chose a slope and a grape focus, and staked a family future on both. Fifty years on, the winery they built is run by their grandchildren Camilla and Francesco, from the same hillside location and in the same appellation: Franciacorta DOCG, Lombardy's traditional-method sparkling wine zone.
Castelveder makes only Franciacorta. The bottles are sparkling wines produced by secondary fermentation in the bottle, from Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, and Pinot Nero grown on eight named vineyard parcels the family has mapped and farmed across those original slopes. The range runs from a non-vintage Brut to a Riserva that spends a minimum of five years on its lees before release.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Franciacorta is a DOCG zone in the province of Brescia, set between Lake Iseo and the city of Brescia in Lombardy. The appellation covers only traditional-method sparkling wine made from Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, and Pinot Nero, and the label category sits above Prosecco and close to Champagne in its production requirements. Monticelli Brusati is one of the villages within the zone, and Castelveder's vineyards sit exclusively on its hills.
The elevation here, between 300 and 380 metres, matters for how the grapes ripen. Higher than the flat moraine floor of the broader zone, the parcels accumulate slightly cooler nights, which extends the growing season and keeps acidity alive in the fruit.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Harvest is done by hand, with pickers filling plastic crates that are transported to the cellar on carts. Whole bunches go directly to the press, where gentle pressing extracts juice without breaking seeds or crushing stems, keeping tannin and bitterness out of the base wine. That care at harvest is what gives the Chardonnay-based Brut its clean fruit and pale straw colour.
In the spring following harvest, the base wine is prepared for tirage: sugar and selected yeasts are added to each bottle to initiate a second fermentation. The sealed bottles are then stacked horizontally in cool, dark cellars, where the secondary fermentation takes place and the wine rests on the dead yeast cells, the lees. Minimum lees contact is 18 months for non-vintage Brut; 24 months for Rosé and Satèn; 30 months for Millesimato; 60 months for Riserva.
Wines to know
The range in view
The range is built around the five statutory Franciacorta DOCG categories, each with its own lees-ageing minimum and distinct character.
The Franciacorta Brut is Chardonnay-based, with a minimum of 18 months on lees. The colour is pale straw, the perlage fine and persistent. Bread and white flower aromas lead, followed by vanilla. The mousse is light, the finish clean.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Start with the Castelveder Franciacorta Brut. It is the estate's Chardonnay-based non-vintage wine, aged a minimum of 18 months on lees, and it does the clearest job of placing Castelveder within Franciacorta as a category: traditional-method sparkling wine from a hillside estate, made with more time in the cellar than the method legally requires at entry level, and without the dosage-driven sweetness that marks cheaper sparkling wine in the same price range. The pale straw colour, fine persistent perlage, and dry finish are what Franciacorta promises. The bread and white flower aromas that rise from 18 months of lees contact are what Castelveder adds.