Alcohol: 12%
Grape(s): 100% Spergola
Localization: Colli di Scandiano e di Canossa Doc Bianco Classico, Emilia Romagna, Italy
Tasting Notes: It offers delicate floral and citrus aromas. On the palate, it is light and refreshing, with flavors of green apple and lemon, complemented by a lively effervescence and a crisp, clean finish.
Notes: This wine is obtained from the vinification of the white “Spergola” grape, a local wine variety grown in a small production area in the hills of Scandiano and known in the area since 1400. This wine has a strong personality and all the typical features of the lands it comes from, an intense bouquet that lingers on in the aftertaste. These features have remained practically intact since their distant origins.
Food pairing:
The Domain: Founded in 1920, this winery was started by a grape broker named Alfredo Bertolani with a down-to-earth motto: simplicity, honesty, and cleanliness. Initially, the name Bertolani became a byword for the local grape Spergola, and their reputation continued to grow with their successful production of Lambrusco.
In 1920 Alfredo Bertolani, a grape broker, began work on the construction of the winery, which was inaugurated five years later. The equipment was that of the Società Enologica Scandianese, an association of landowners founded in 1874 to spread local wine in Italy and abroad. After the world exhibitions in Philadelphia in 1876 and Paris in 1878, the Società Oenologica ceased its activity at the end of the First World War.
The knowledge of the lands of Scandiano and the plots most suited to viticulture allows Alfredo, helped by his sons Vincenzo and Nemesio, to bring to the table a wine of excellent quality appreciated in Emilia and Tuscany. His motto is "Simplicity, honesty and cleanliness", orders are collected with a handshake and kept in memory, the name Bertolani becomes a guarantee of typicality and reliability.
The Second World War did not spare the Scandiano area. Vincenzo, who had taken over from his father, dismantled the company truck to avoid its seizure. When the conflict ended in 1945, it was the only vehicle available within a radius of dozens of kilometers and with it he could transport the grapes from the vineyards to the cellar.
Under Vincenzo's guidance, the name "Alfredo Bertolani" becomes synonymous with Spergola, the typical grape of the area that stands out for its aromatic and convivial profile. The company, a point of reference for this production, is known by all as the House of White Wine: 40% of the white wine of the area is produced here.
Field by field, row by row, Vincenzo personally visits all the vineyards in the area, selecting the bunches for his naturally bottle-fermented wines. He suggests harvest times and destinations, choose different tanks for the mustering of grapes from nearby vineyards that are distinct from each other in terms of exposure and altitude. Wine is his life, a contagious love that he passes on to his son Giancarlo, ready to reciprocate in his own way.
Giancarlo's entry into the company coincides with the beginning of important technological innovations that revolutionize the winemaking processes in the name of increasing quality and greater longevity of the wines. From reference in the bottle we move to that in the autoclave, the rain pasteurization replaces the immersion one. In 1976 the Pro Loco of Scandiano commissioned a thousand bottles of "Bianco di Scandiano" as a reference model for the birth of the first DOC of Emilia. In 1977 the company's wines debut abroad at the London Fair.
While Lambrusco's production increases, the company continues to be ahead of its time in the technological field. At the beginning of the 1980s, the introduction of sterile bottling was an innovation that quickly led it to specialize in this process, which was also carried out on behalf of third parties. The computerization of the cell phone also began with the arrival of the first PCs.
The birth of the new DOC Colli di Scandiano e di Canossa, the rediscovery of Spergola as the queen variety of the territory, and a greater attention to the bottle and its ability to tell the story of the wine and the identity of a territory characterize the end of the twentieth century. In these years, thanks to bottling in a modified atmosphere, the company solved, always ahead of its time, the delicate problem of wine oxidation.
The fourth generation of Bertolani has the faces of Nicola, Andrea and Elena, who together with their father Giancarlo in 2008 realized the dream of the new headquarters. On the edge of the town but still in the heart of Spergola, integrated into the landscape and with a decidedly green soul. Precious collaborations and an export activity in continuous growth between the United States, Canada, China, Japan and Europe begin: new challenges that make the winery grow and extend the borders of Scandiano in the world.
