To wander through the caves of the Contratto Winery in Canelli is to walk through the history of Italian sparkling wine. The underground cellars were dug out manually when the winery was founded in 1867.
They are amazing, and understandably slated to become a UNESCO World Heritage site this summer.
Our guide gave a detailed explanation of the Methode Champenoise, demonstrating the manual turning of the bottles. Next they demonstrated the disgorging of the sentiment, a traditionally manual process of freezing the neck and letting the plug pop out. We made him do this several times!
In the huge, candlelit banquet hall we were able to finally taste the sparkling wines made from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Muscato. Perfecto.