Italy · Franciacorta & Curtefranca

Bersi Serlini

Franciacorta house in Provaglio d'Iseo, making metodo classico sparkling wines from organically farmed vineyards on the southern shore of Lake Iseo, in cellars first cut by medieval monks.

The producer

Bersi Serlini sits at the older end of Franciacorta's story. The cellars beneath the property in Provaglio d'Iseo were built by Cluny monks from the nearby Abbey of San Pietro in Lamosa during the Middle Ages, and the family that acquired the estate in 1886 inherited both the land and those underground rooms. In 1970, Arturo Bersi Serlini produced the first bottle of Brut in Franciacorta, a dry sparkling wine made by secondary fermentation in bottle, from Chardonnay grown on the southern shore of Lake Iseo, at a point when the zone had no DOCG. The appellation was formalised in 1995. Arturo had been making the wine for twenty-five years by then.

The range today runs from Anteprima Brut, an 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Bianco blend with yellow apple, nougat, and citrus on the nose, through the drier Solo Uva Extra Brut and the lower-pressure Satén, aged three years on lees for a softer, creamier mousse, to Riserva wines that spend a minimum of twelve years on lees before release. Organic farming across 18 hectares, hand harvest in August, and manual remuage still carried out in the medieval cellars connect each bottle back to the same physical place the monks worked seven centuries ago. CEO Agostino Migliorati leads the estate today alongside Chiara and Maddalena Bersi Serlini.

Known for

Franciacorta DOCG metodo classico; Riserva wines aged twelve years or more on lees; manual remuage in medieval underground cellars.

Notable facts

The story

The First Brut in Franciacorta

In 1970, Arturo Bersi Serlini made a wine the zone had not yet made: a dry sparkling Brut from the family's vineyards in Provaglio d'Iseo, produced by secondary fermentation in bottle. Franciacorta had no DOCG and no reputation for metodo classico sparkling wine. The category Arturo was working in did not officially exist, and there was no established market for it in Lombardy. He made it anyway, disgorging the bottles in the same underground cellars the Cluny monks had built centuries before. The Franciacorta DOCG came in 1995, by which point the estate had already spent a generation proving what the vineyards could do. The same underground rooms where Arturo turned those first bottles by hand are where the remuage still happens today.

From the atlas

Bersi Serlini

At A Glance

The Producer

Bersi Serlini sits on the southern shore of Lake Iseo in Provaglio d'Iseo, in Franciacorta, the DOCG zone in Lombardy that produces Italy's most ambitious metodo classico sparkling wines. The cellars beneath the property were cut by Cluny monks from the nearby Abbey of San Pietro in Lamosa during the Middle Ages, and the same underground rooms are where each bottle is hand-turned through remuage today.

The family acquired the property in 1886, after more than 700 years of Cluniac ownership. In the second half of the twentieth century, attorney Piero Bersi Serlini expanded the winery. Then, in 1970, his successor Arturo Bersi Serlini produced the first bottle of Brut in Franciacorta, a dry sparkling wine from these vineyards at a moment when the zone had no DOCG and no reputation for sparkling wine at all. The appellation would come in 1995. Arturo made the wine twenty-five years before anyone could file it under a recognised category.

The estate is now led by CEO Agostino Migliorati alongside Chiara and Maddalena Bersi Serlini, farming organically across 18 hectares of vineyards, with hand harvest every August.

Place

Franciacorta occupies a glacial moraine bowl south of the Alps in Lombardy, sheltered by the lake and shaped by a wind collision: cold air rushing south from the mountains over Lake Iseo meets warm air moving north from the Pianura Padana, the Po Valley plain. This creates a fresh, even microclimate that holds acidity in the grapes through August harvests, which is what metodo classico sparkling wine needs. Without that cold-warm meeting, the zone would not produce sparkling wine with the mousse, the freshness, or the lees-ageing capacity that Franciacorta DOCG demands.

The DOCG label on a Bersi Serlini bottle means the wine was made by secondary fermentation in bottle, aged on its lees in those medieval cellars, and produced from Chardonnay, Pinot Bianco, or Pinot Nero grown within the Franciacorta zone. In the glass, that translates to the tight bead, the toasted-bread character, and the acid line that separates Franciacorta from simpler tank-fermented Italian sparkling wine.

Soil And Site

The vineyards spread across the southern Lake Iseo shore, planted on the glacial soils typical of the Franciacorta zone: a mix of morainic deposits, gravel, sand, and clay laid down during the last ice age. Hand harvest in August protects the fruit from over-ripening and lets the cellar work from grapes picked at natural freshness. Organic farming across the estate means no synthetic pesticides or herbicides, which in a year-round lake microclimate matters for vine health across the full growing season.

Story

The Bersi Serlini story moves in three phases. For seven centuries, Cluny monks worked the vineyards and built the cellars at Provaglio d'Iseo. When the property passed to the Bersi Serlini family in 1886, it carried that infrastructure forward into private ownership. Piero Bersi Serlini expanded the operation in the mid-twentieth century, adding production capacity to what had been a monastic farming property.

The decisive turn came in 1970. Arturo Bersi Serlini made a dry sparkling Brut from the estate's vineyards, using the metodo classico technique of secondary fermentation in bottle. Franciacorta had no DOCG designation and no market for fine sparkling wine from Lombardy. Arturo's bottle was among the first in the zone. Over the next twenty-five years, other producers followed, the consortium formed, and in 1995 Franciacorta became a DOCG. By that point Bersi Serlini had already been making Brut for a generation.

Today, the estate makes around 200,000 bottles a year, from entry-level Anteprima Brut through Riserva wines aged for at least twelve years on lees, all from organically farmed vineyards, with manual remuage still carried out in the cellars the monks built.

Vineyards And Cellar

Organic farming governs the vineyard work throughout. Grapes are hand-harvested in August, earlier than most Italian wine regions, which locks in the acidity that Franciacorta's long lees ageing requires. Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco carry most of the range.

In the cellar, the key practice is manual remuage, the process of hand-turning each bottle in its rack over weeks to gather the lees sediment into the neck before disgorgement. Most large Champagne and Franciacorta producers moved to mechanical gyropalettes decades ago. Bersi Serlini continues the hand process in the underground cellars beneath the property. It is slower and more labour-intensive, and it connects the production directly to the same rooms and the same physical technique the estate has used since before the family arrived in 1886.

The Extra Brut is produced by the grape-only method, meaning no liqueur is added at disgorgement to adjust sweetness. The dosage relies on grape sugars alone, keeping the wine dry and direct. The Riserva wines spend a minimum of twelve years on lees before release, far beyond the DOCG minimum, which changes the aromatic character of the wine fundamentally: autolytic notes of brioche, cream, and toasted nut develop over years of contact with the spent yeast.

Wines

The range moves from approachable to age-demanding across five styles.

The Anteprima Brut blends 80% Chardonnay with 20% Pinot Bianco. It is the house entry point: yellow apple, nougat, apricot, toasted bread, and citrus on the nose, with a round, fruited palate and enough acid to keep it clean on the finish.

The Extra Brut Solo Uva is drier and more austere. Produced by the grape-only method with no added dosage liqueur, it reads leaner on the palate, with the acid line more exposed and the fruit held tighter than in the Anteprima.

The Cuvée N°4 Millesimato Brut is a vintage-dated 100% Chardonnay with oak ageing before the secondary fermentation. The oak adds a layer of body and a slightly rounder texture that the non-vintage Anteprima does not carry.

The Satén is the house's most distinctive style. Satén is a Franciacorta category made exclusively from white grapes, bottled at lower pressure than standard Franciacorta, 4.5 atmospheres rather than 6. The reduced pressure produces noticeably smaller, softer bubbles and a rounder mousse on the palate. Bersi Serlini ages its Satén for three years on lees, which gives the aromatic intensity to hold the gentler fizz without feeling flat.

The Riserva is the opposite extreme: limited production, minimum twelve years on lees, and sensory complexity that comes from that extended ageing. Brioche, dried fruit, cream, and deep autolytic character from the time in bottle.

In The Glass

Across the range, Bersi Serlini wines open with the toasted-bread, lees-derived character that comes from metodo classico ageing in bottle, layered over fresh fruit from hand-harvested Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco.

The Anteprima Brut is the freshest and most immediate: yellow apple and apricot on the nose, then citrus, nougat, and a clean acid finish that cuts through the fruit without any sharp edge. The mousse is fine and persistent.

The Solo Uva Extra Brut is tighter from the first pour. Without the softening liqueur, the acid sits forward, the fruit is more compact, and the finish is drier and longer.

The Satén moves in a different direction: the smaller bubbles created by lower bottle pressure give the wine a creamy, almost cushioned texture in the mouth. Three years on lees adds toasted notes and a mild brioche depth without turning the wine heavy. The aromatics are more intense than the mousse suggests.

The Riserva is another register entirely. Twelve or more years on lees transforms the wine's fruit into something deeper and more complex: candied citrus peel, cream, roasted nut, and a long, mineral finish. The bubbles are fine and slow. The acidity holds the wine upright through all of it.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Anteprima Brut. It is 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Bianco, made by secondary fermentation in bottle and aged on its lees in the medieval underground cellars at Provaglio d'Iseo. On the nose: yellow apple, nougat, apricot, toasted bread, a lift of citrus. In the mouth: a clean, fine mousse, round fruit through the mid-palate, and an acid-bright finish that keeps the wine from feeling heavy. It is not a simplified wine; it carries the Franciacorta lees character clearly while staying genuinely easy to drink. Buy this one first to understand what Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco do in this corner of Lombardy when the fermentation happens in bottle rather than tank.

Anecdote

In 1970, Arturo Bersi Serlini opened a bottle he had made himself from the family's vineyards in Provaglio d'Iseo. It was a dry sparkling Brut, produced by secondary fermentation in bottle, from Chardonnay grown on the southern shore of Lake Iseo. No such wine had been commercially produced in Franciacorta before. The zone had no DOCG, no market to sell it into. Arturo made it anyway. The Franciacorta DOCG would be granted in 1995, twenty-five years after that bottle. By then, the estate had already spent a generation in the underground cellars, turning bottles by hand, working through disgorgement, and shipping a wine into a category that did not yet officially exist when he started.

Final Word

Bersi Serlini is a Franciacorta house with a very long physical memory: medieval cellars, 700 years of monastic viticulture on the same land, and the family decision in 1970 to make a Brut before Franciacorta was a recognised name. The wines sit at the serious end of the appellation's range, with organic farming, hand remuage, and a Riserva tier that pushes twelve years on lees. The Anteprima Brut is the easiest entry point. The Satén shows what lower-pressure Franciacorta can do when given three years of contact with the lees. The Riserva is for the patient.

Sources

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