Nicola Gatta, Cuvée Nature 30 Lune NV - 75cl

Thirty moons — not thirty days. Lune are lunar cycles of roughly 29 days each, so this sat the better part of two and a half years on its lees before disgorgement. Nicola Gatta names every wine he makes for the number of moons it waited, which is a fair summary of how the man thinks.

It is the way into his range, and for the money one of the more honest bottles of traditional-method sparkling wine you will come across. Chardonnay makes up the bulk with about a fifth Pinot Nero, grown on limestone at Gussago, 400 metres up at the eastern end of Franciacorta. Gatta farms biodynamically and stays outside the DOCG deliberately, so the label says Vino Spumante and little else. The base ferments by itself in tonneau, nothing is filtered, no sulphur goes in, and there is no dosage at all at disgorgement. You are tasting the wine without a safety net.

What comes back is lean and quite serious. Green pear skin, lemon, a sourdough tang from the lees, and a stony finish that reads almost salty. The bead is fine and keeps coming. Two and a half years on lees have softened the frame without padding it, so the wine stays vertical rather than round.

How to Serve

Zero-dosage sparkling wine turns severe when it is too cold. Give it 9°C, use a white wine glass, and open it twenty minutes before you pour. It fills out noticeably over the first half hour.

Where to Drink It

J Sheekey, at the bar, before the theatre. Brat in Shoreditch, where the smoke off the grill needs something this taut alongside it. Noble Rot, for a list put together by people who care what is in the bottle.

Food Pairings

Smoked eel with horseradish on dark rye. The acidity and the bone-dry finish cut through oily fish cleanly, and the lees character meets the smoke halfway. Raw scallops with good oil would be the other way to go.