Muratori presents the still wines of Franciacorta

The birth of a new wine is always a celebration for a winery. Let alone two of them and if they symbolize a new corporate course and a different reading of an area.

Such was the mood around the presentation of Setticlavio and Mantorosso, the first two still wines in the range of cantina Muratori, a Franciacorta winery specializing in sparkling wines located in Adro (BS). “A few years ago it would have been unthinkable to create such an event – began Bruno Muratori, patron with his brother Giuliano of the business -. an achievement that is a combination of events, but also the result of the commitment, passion, and will put into it, without which we would not have succeeded. This is the direction I would like to give to the young people and the new generations who will take over the company “.

The Muratori family

Founded by the two Muratori siblings in 1999 as an entrepreneurial diversification from the family’s original business (Giemme Filati, a cotton textile industry established in 1957 in Capriolo), today the winery sees increasingly active deployment of the four cousins Michela and Alberto, Matteo and Marco, sons of Bruno and Giuliano Muratori, respectively.

“We were born in the cotton textile business, but in 1999 we started the wine business, finding in the land a new address and that bond that belongs to our family’s past – Bruno Muratori recounted. – In 2020 we happened to meet Riccardo Cotarella And this has been fortunate for us. Riccardo has completely changed our reality and, humanly speaking, has spread a climate of fairness, precision, respect and teamwork. Even a certain maniacality, which are all values that have always been Murat’s own golds.”

After resetting the work in the cellar and investing in those few indispensable technologies, such as the refrigeration cellar, Cotarella focused on finding a new oenological footprint. “With a desire for research typical of young people, Riccardo had the idea of also producing still wines – said with sympathy Bruno Muratori

– Because there can be continuity regardless of the type of wines. Thus, the project ” New forms of continuity” just 5,000 bottles compared to the 500,000 of the winery’s potential, but which represent the will not to do business, but to transmit outside the idea of a family that focuses on research, experimentation and enhancement of the territory“.

“No wine is impossible.”

“That of the Muratori company constitutes a relatively new project, but one tied to deep-rooted family traditions – said. Riccardo Cotarella. – I believe that one should never say that a wine is impossible if upstream there has not been experimentation done well. Experimentation has a cost and risks not bringing results, which is why not everyone can afford to do it. I am the son of farmers and my father certainly at the time, like many others, did not have the opportunity to experiment, to take risks.”

“This is why one must be cautious in defining whether an area is suited or not suited to a certain type of wine: one should never judge a priori. So I asked myself: why not try to make still wines in Franciacorta? “. Not new for the area, which already sees other producers engaged on this front, but certainly a choice outside the comfort zone of Franciacorta oenology.

Without planting new vines, but only by changing the management of greenery so as to enrich the clusters and have more body and alcohol in the wines, new meaning was thus given to existing vineyards of Chardonnay e Pinot noir.

A white and a red, still

Two particularly auspicious seasons did the rest, resulting in two labels that “contribute to a broader vision of the potential of the Franciacorta territory” added Cotarella, who concluded, “with my son-in-law Pierpaolo Chiasso (winemaker of the year for our Essential Guide 2025). we worked in tandem under Bruno’s spiritual guidance. We did nothing in particular “.

“The experimentation does not end here and we still have to file down some details, but the result gives us hope. In this company we have found everything: family, collaborators, grapes, territory, the best technology and the will to experiment. I can only thank the Muratori family for their entrepreneurial willingness to invest and get involved “.

Septuagint e Mantorosso the names of the new products, inspired by choral music and the clay nature of the soils of origin, respectively.

The Chardonnay Setticlavio

These are two single varietals: Chardonnay, an outcome of the 2023 vintage, the first, and Pinot noir from the 2022 vintage, the second. “The white is vinified halfway between steel and barrique, where it then stays for 9 months – explained Cotarella – but it is possible that in future editions we will go to decrease the share of wood to 30%, given the tertiarization response. As for evolution in the bottle, the unchanged acidity in the mouth gives me hope: it has an energy that is not always found in Italian Chardonnays and that comes to it from the soils of Franciacorta “.

The Pinot Noir Mantorosso

The winemaker then said he was definitely satisfied with the result of the Pinot Noir Mantorosso, a wine that precisely reflects the character of the grape variety. “A Pinot Noir must taste like Pinot Noir otherwise it is just a red wine” said Cotarella, who for this wine opted for a fermentation in steel in contact with the skins interrupted quickly and then transfer to barrique for a year. “Pinot noir is every winemaker’s wish grape and lives by the prejudice that it can only be done well in Burgundy: but that’s only because it has been made there for centuries“.

Two elegant and easy-drinking wines, in line with an increasingly demanding market in this respect, but by no means lacking in perspective and complexity.

At the moment, the project involves very low production numbers, just 2065 bottles for Setticlavio and 2927 for Mantorosso, all numbered and sold in 6-bottle wooden crates with meticulous packaging intended for Ho.re.ca. I

he cellar price is 25 euros for the white and 42 for the red (about 45 and 70 euros, respectively, on the shelf to the public), in line with products of the same type on the market.

TO READ THE WINE DESCRIPTIONS, WITH SCORE AND AVERAGE SHELF PRICE, CLICK ON THE TABS BELOW.