An exuberant, confident and bright style - lively and very approachable with a citrus fruits and golden apple character which is at the same time both incisive yet quite gentle.

Italian sparkling wine is not all about Prosecco, as leading Franciacorta producer Ferghettina has proved time and time again.

Ferghettina is a family winery - established in 1991 by Roberto Gatti, and run with his wife Andreina, and their children Laura and Matteo. Starting with just 3-4ha of vineyard and a small production of Franciacorta Brut, Ferghettina has now grown to become one of the finest Franciacorta wineries.

Situated in the southern half of Lombardy on the edge of the town of Adro, just south of Lake Iseo, the majority of plantings are Chardonnay (approx. 70%) along with Pinot Noir (and just 4ha of Pinot Blanc for their still wines). They now have 200ha of vineyard across 11 different villages, mostly at 250-300m altitude. Each vineyard confers a unique character on the resulting base wine, giving Roberto a broad spectrum of styles to blend for each cuvée. It is this skilful blending, meticulous attention to detail and long bottle maturation that give Ferghettina's wines great finesse and individuality.

Matteo designed the eye-catching, square-based bottle used for Milledi and Rosé Brut. First used for the 2007 vintage (released in 2011), the triangular, flattened sides provide a surface area around two and a half times greater than that of a standard bottle, giving more lees-to-wine contact and therefore greater complexity.

The Gatti family manage 120 hectares of vineyards in six localities within the DOC. The alcoholic fermentation is carried out in stainless steel tank at controlled temperature between 16 and 18°C with selected yeast. Tirage is done in spring time of the following year, the wine spends 24 month ageing on the lees. At disgorgement 7 grams/litre of sugar is added.

Drink as an aperitif, or with starters and light mains such as shellfish, cold meats, and light, soft cheeses.