Rotari

Rotari is the traditional method sparkling label of Gruppo Mezzacorona, based at Mezzocorona in the Piana Rotaliana, on the Adige north of Trento. It is worth understanding what that means, because it is not an estate. The group began in 1904, when eleven growers in Mezzocorona formed the town's first wine co-operative; today it has more than 1,500 grower members, and the holding company is still the co-operative itself, with a commercial arm, Nosio, set up in 1998 on the condition that the co-operative retain majority control. So the fruit behind a bottle of Rotari comes from more than a thousand family plots in Trentino rather than from one property. That is the model that makes the price possible.

The sparkling side started in 1977, when the group built its first dedicated sparkling-wine cellar. In 1997 it opened the Cantina Rotari inside the Cittadella del Vino, a converted industrial site at Mezzocorona given over entirely to the production of Trentodoc, with a 2,000-seat auditorium, the PalaRotari, added in 2004. It is open to visitors, which is unusual for an operation of this scale.

Trentodoc is the thing to know about here. It is Trentino's traditional method denomination, made only from Trentino fruit, hand-harvested, with second fermentation in the bottle and a long stay on the lees: the rules require a minimum of fifteen months for a non-vintage wine, twenty-four for a vintage and thirty-six for a riserva. Trentino has been at this since the beginning of the twentieth century and, alongside Franciacorta, is where Italy makes its serious Metodo Classico. The vineyards run up the slopes on either side of the Adige valley, on limestone soils of Dolomitic origin at around 400 metres, and it is the altitude and the cold alpine nights that hold the acidity in the base wine. That is the whole argument for mountain sparkling wine and it is a sound one.

In the cellar the base wine is fermented in temperature-controlled steel at 18°C, bottled in spring with sugar and yeast for the second fermentation, riddled, and disgorged; the liqueur d'expédition is a blend of sugar and older wines matured in barrique, and the recipe is a house secret. On the farming side, every grower member has held SQNPI certification, Italy's national integrated production standard, on their grapes since 2016, and the group's DOC wines have been certified since 2017. That is integrated farming rather than organic, and it is worth being clear about the difference.

The range runs from the Classici, Rotari Brut and Rotari Brut Rosé, through Cuvée 28, up to Rotari 40, a Blanc de Blancs, and then the AlpeRegis selection (Brut, Extra Brut, Pas Dosé and Rosé) and the top wines, Flavio and Flavio Nature. Cuvée 28 itself comes in two bottlings, a Chardonnay Brut and a Rosé.

A word on what this is and is not. It is not Champagne and it is not trying to be; Trentino has its own history with this method and does not need to borrow anyone's. What it is is a genuinely traditional method sparkling wine at a price where most of the shelf is tank-method Prosecco, and if you have ever wanted the biscuity, bready character that only comes from time on the lees without spending forty pounds, this is where you find it.