From the atlas
Società Agricola Derbusco srl
At A Glance
Producer: Derbusco Cives (Società Agricola Derbusco srl) Village: Erbusco Zone: Franciacorta DOCG, Lombardy Grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Nero Vineyards: 12.5 hectares on morainic hills Oenologist: Domenico Danesi Entry bottle: Doppio Erre Di, Franciacorta DOCG Brut
The Producer
Derbusco Cives is a Franciacorta estate built from a single commitment: make sparkling wine that comes entirely from the grape. The winery sits in Erbusco, the central village of Lombardy's Franciacorta zone, on morainic hills southeast of Lake Iseo. Everything the house bottles carries the Franciacorta DOCG, the appellation reserved for traditional-method sparkling wine produced within this zone from Chardonnay, Pinot Nero, and Pinot Bianco. At Derbusco Cives, the working grapes are Chardonnay and Pinot Nero, farmed across 12.5 hectares and vinified without exogenous cane sugar at any stage.
The oenologist is Domenico Danesi. The house was conceived by five friends in autumn 2004, with the winery formally founded in 2005 and its first bottles reaching the market in spring 2010. The cellar at Via Provinciale 83 completed in March 2013 and is the most visible sign of the founding logic: a pentagonal building, one side for each partner.
Place
Franciacorta occupies a belt of glacially shaped hills in the province of Brescia, running south and east from Lake Iseo. The morainic soils here are a direct consequence of Ice Age glaciers that retreated and left behind layers of gravel, sand, and mineral deposit. Those soils drain quickly and warm early in the season, which matters for traditional-method sparkling wine: grapes harvested at full natural ripeness carry enough sugar to feed both the primary fermentation and the secondary fermentation in bottle without supplementation from the winery.
Erbusco sits near the heart of the zone. Wines labelled Franciacorta DOCG without a village or vineyard addition must meet the zone's minimum lees-ageing requirements, which already exceed Champagne's non-vintage floor. Derbusco Cives works above that floor on every tier of the range.
Soil And Site
The 12.5 hectares are planted on the morainic hills immediately surrounding Erbusco. Morainic soils are characteristically loose and stony, with variable proportions of clay, silt, and mineral debris deposited by glacier movement. The drainage is free, the subsoil retains some moisture through dry summers, and the mineral character of the deposit carries through into the must when yields are kept low and pressing is restrained. No independently verified data on parcel-level soil composition or vine age exists in the source record.
Story
The five founders made their decision in autumn 2004, but six years passed before a bottle left the cellar. That gap is the story of building a Franciacorta estate from nothing: identifying the land on the morainic hills at Erbusco, establishing the 12.5 hectares of Chardonnay and Pinot Nero, constructing the winery, and waiting through the long lees-ageing periods the appellation requires. The first bottles disgorged at the end of 2009 entered the market in spring 2010.
Three years later, the cellar that now defines the estate was finished. In 2012, Giuseppe Vezzoli and the Brescia-based Enoconsulting Team developed the Solo Uva method, a no-added-sugar production approach that formalised the house's core principle into a named technique. Solo Uva removes cane sugar not only from dosage but from all stages of production, relying on harvest timing rather than winery intervention to achieve the necessary sugar levels. That decision shaped the range architecture and still governs every bottling the estate releases.
Vineyards And Cellar
Harvest at Derbusco Cives is delayed until grapes reach full ripeness. The consequence is measurable: no exogenous cane sugar is added at any stage of production, in the base wine or in the liqueur de tirage that triggers secondary fermentation in bottle. The wine's carbonation comes from grape sugar alone.
Pressing is kept well below the 60% yield the Franciacorta production rules permit. Only the prime must from the first, softest pressing is used; the second and third pressings are discarded. Finer must means finer bubbles and a cleaner aromatic base.
Lees ageing is the defining variable across the range. Doppio Erre Di, the entry Brut, ages a minimum of 30 months on lees in bottle. The Decem Annis Reserve ages 120 months, a full decade, before disgorgement. Across that span, the yeast contact builds texture, depth, and complexity from within the wine rather than from dosage added at the end.
Wines
Doppio Erre Di is the entry to the range: a non-vintage Franciacorta DOCG Brut built from 85% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Nero, aged at least 30 months on lees, finished with low dosage, and shipped soon after disgorgement to carry maximum freshness to the table. The blend ratio keeps the wine driven by Chardonnay's citrus and floral character, with Pinot Nero adding body and a faint grip to the mousse.
Cuvée Solo Uva applies the no-added-sugar method developed in 2012 across the full cycle, from base wine through to disgorgement. Single-variety Chardonnay and Pinot Nero bottlings are available alongside vintage Franciacorta in both varieties, allowing comparison of what each grape does alone on the morainic soils at Erbusco.
Decem Annis Reserve is the long-aged flagship. At 120 months on lees, it spends a decade in bottle before release. At that ageing length, autolysis produces deep toasty, brioche, and nutty character alongside whatever fruit and mineral the base wine carried. No independently sourced tasting notes exist for this bottle, but the production logic points toward a wine of considerable weight and oxidative depth.
In The Glass
Doppio Erre Di opens with floral and citrus aromas, the Chardonnay character rising clearly from 85% of the blend. The bubbles are fine and persistent, a direct consequence of low-yield pressing and the clean must that results. In the mouth the wine is fresh and mineral, with a linear mid-palate and a clean, dry finish. The 30-plus months on lees give it length without softening the acidity; the low dosage keeps the finish dry rather than sweetened. Pinot Nero's contribution is textural: a subtle broadening of the mid-palate and a slight grip to the bead rather than any red-fruit flavour at this blend ratio.
The Solo Uva bottlings, built on the same no-added-sugar principle, share that freshness but carry the character specific to a single variety. The reserve tier, aged many times longer, will be a fundamentally different wine: richer, deeper, and shaped more by yeast contact than by primary fruit.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with Doppio Erre Di. It is 85% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Nero from the morainic hectares at Erbusco, aged at least 30 months on lees, finished with low dosage, and sent to market soon after disgorgement. The wine is floral and citrus-driven on the nose, fresh and mineral in the mouth, and long on the finish. The lees ageing gives it more depth and a creamier texture than a standard non-vintage Franciacorta, but the acidity keeps it upright and the dosage keeps it dry. This is the bottle that shows how the house's production choices, the ripe harvest, the restrained pressing, and the extended lees contact, translate directly into what sits in the glass.
Anecdote
When the cellar at Via Provinciale 83 was finally finished in March 2013, the five founding partners needed a way to mark the building as theirs. They chose the shape of the building itself. The central body of the winery is a pentagon: five equal sides, one for each partner. Green roof gardens cover the two flanking wings, and the outer walls of the main building are clad in natural cork. The geometry was not decorative. It was arithmetic. Anyone who has ever needed to explain a co-ownership arrangement to a builder, an architect, or a local planning office will understand what it means to settle on a floor plan that literally counts the people involved. The pentagon has been there since 2013, and every case that leaves the cellar leaves from inside it.
Final Word
Derbusco Cives is a small Franciacorta estate with a clear position: no added sugar, restrained yields, and lees ageing that runs longer than the appellation requires. The entry wine carries those decisions legibly. The reserve, at ten years on lees, takes them to a different register entirely. Erbusco is well placed on the morainic hills of Franciacorta, and the first bottles left the cellar in 2010.
Sources
- https://www.derbuscocives.com/en/la-cantina/
- https://www.derbuscocives.com/en/la-filosofia/
- https://cuzziolgrandivini.it/en/produttore/derbusco-cives/
- https://glossary.wein.plus/derbusco-cives-2
- https://www.derbuscocives.com/vini/franciacorta-docg-brut-doppio-erre-di/
- https://www.cantinedifranciacorta.it/derbusco-cives/24-franciacorta-docg-brut-doppio-erre-di-075-l-derbusco-cives.html
- https://www.derbuscocives.com/ordina-online/