Quattrocento 40 lune Extra Brut Magnum (d2020-01)

Quattrocento is Nicola Gatta's 40 lune bottling - forty lunar cycles on the lees, about forty months in the producer's own approximation, one step up the ladder that runs from Cuvée Nature at thirty moons to Molener at ninety. The blend is 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Nero vinified white, from limestone parcels around Gussago and Cellatica at 400 to 650 metres. The US importer Ambrosi explains the name as the vineyards' altitude - quattrocento, four hundred - and notes roughly 10% of perpetual-reserve wine, aged four to five years, folded into the base. Spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts, no added sulphites, and no appellation claimed - the label reads Vino Spumante, Extra Brut.

The producer describes it as evolution on the nose, dry and explosive on the palate. This bottle is the magnum, disgorged in January 2020 per its hand-filled back label, which declares 3 g/L of sugar and 33 mg/L of total sulphur.