Tax Free Franciacorta

Today, Franciacorta is Italy’s leading area for sophisticated, dry sparkling wines made by the traditional (Champagne) method. At their best, these are austerely elegant sparklers with a fine, creamy mousse of bubbles. The region is now home to a number of prestigious sparkling wine firms. Historically, however, Franciacorta was a fairly bucolic place, replete with convents and monasteries. The name Franciacorta is said to derive from the region’s towns–curtes in dialect–which were exempt–francae–from taxes during the Middle Ages. The name, first used in the 1200s, was probably adopted because the monasteries in the region were given tax breaks for reviving agriculture. The name wasn’t applied to wine until the 1970s.