Trento is an Italian wine

Italian wine

Italian wine is wine produced in Italy, a country which is home to some of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world. Italy is the world's largest wine producer, responsible for approximately one-fifth of world wine production in 2005. Italian wine is exported largely around the world and has...

 Denominazione di origine controllata

Denominazione di Origine Controllata

Denominazione di origine controllata is a quality assurance label for food products, especially wines and various formaggi . It is modelled after the French AOC...

(DOC) region producing white and rosé

Rosé

A rosé is a type of wine that has some of the color typical of a red wine, but only enough to turn it pink. The pink color can range from a pale orange to a vivid near-purple, depending on the grapes and wine making techniques.- Production techniques :There are three major ways to produce rosé...

sparkling wine

Sparkling wine

Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it making it fizzy. The carbon dioxide may result from natural fermentation, either in a bottle, as with the méthode champenoise, in a large tank designed to withstand the pressures involved , or as a result of carbon dioxide...

 made in Trentino. The sparkling wines of Trento are produced using the same production method

Sparkling wine production

There are four main methods of sparkling wine production. The first is simple injection of carbon dioxide , the process used in soft drinks, but this produces big bubbles that dissipate quickly in the glass. The second is the Metodo Italiano – Charmat process, in which the wine undergoes a...

 as Champagne, and the Champagne grape varieties of Chardonnay

Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a green-skinned grape variety used to make white wine. It is originated from the Burgundy wine region of eastern France but is now grown wherever wine is produced, from England to New Zealand...

, Pinot Noir

Pinot Noir

Pinot noir is a black wine grape variety of the species Vitis vinifera. The name may also refer to wines created predominantly from Pinot noir grapes...

, and Pinot Meunier

Pinot meunier

Pinot Meunier, , also known as Meunier or Black Riesling, is a variety of black wine grape most noted for being one of the three main grapes used in the production of champagne...

 with Pinot Blanc

Pinot Blanc

Pinot blanc is a white wine grape. It is a point genetic mutation of Pinot noir. Pinot noir is genetically unstable and will occasionally experience a point mutation in which a vine bears all black fruit except for one cane which produced white fruit....

 also being a permitted variety.

History

Chardonnay grapes were first brought to the region from France around 1900 by Giulio Ferrari when Trento

Trento

Trento is an Italian city located in the Adige River valley in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. It is the capital of Trentino...

 was still part of the Habsburg Empire. After graduating from the Forschungsanstalt für Garten- und Weinbau in Geisenheim/Rheingau, Germany, Ferrari gained winemaking

Winemaking

Winemaking, or vinification, is the production of wine, starting with selection of the grapes or other produce and ending with bottling the finished wine. Although most wine is made from grapes, it may also be made from other fruit or non-toxic plant material...

 experince in the French Champagne producing village of Épernay

Épernay

Épernay is a commune in the Marne department in northern France. Épernay is located some 130 km north-east of Paris on the main line of the Eastern railway to Strasbourg...

.

Vineyards

There are currently more than twenty vineyards producing Trento DOC, including Cavit, the largest cooperative in the province with some 65% of production and whose Pinot Grigio is widely exported but produced under a different DOC designation in the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol wine

Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol wine

The Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol area is an is an autonomous region located in north-east Italy producing wine in the two provinces of Trentino and South Tyrol...

 region.

According to DOC regulations, irrigation is allowed only as an emergency measure. Harvest

Harvest (wine)

The harvesting of wine grapes is one of the most crucial steps in the process of winemaking. The time of harvest is determined primarily by the ripeness of the grape as measured by sugar, acid and tannin levels with winemakers basing their decision to pick based on the style of wine they wish to...

 yields are restricted to a maximum of 12 tonnes/hectare

Hectare

The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...

.

Winemaking

As with Méthode Champenoise, the second fermentation for sparkling Trento must occur in the bottle, which is riddled in the same way as champagne and then disgorged by freezing a small amount of wine in the neck of the bottle and removing the plug of ice containing the lees.

While there are no DOC restrictions on the exact proportions of the blend, the grape varieties used in Trento DOC are limited to Chardonnay, Pinot noir, Pinot Meunier and Pinot blanc. After secondary fermentation, the wines must rest on their lees

Lees (fermentation)

Lees refers to deposits of dead yeast or residual yeast and other particles that precipitate, or are carried by the action of "fining", to the bottom of a vat of wine after fermentation and ageing. The yeast deposits in beer brewing are known as trub...

 for a minimum of 15 months for non-vintage wines, 24 months for vintage

Vintage

Vintage, in wine-making, is the process of picking grapes and creating the finished product . A vintage wine is one made from grapes that were all, or primarily, grown and harvested in a single specified year. In certain wines, it can denote quality, as in Port wine, where Port houses make and...

 wines and 36 months for wines labeled as Riserva. The alcohol level for the finished wines must be a minimum of 11.5% for non-vintage and vintage wines and 12% for Riserva wines.