Guido Berlucchi sits in Borgonato, the village in Lombardy's Franciacorta hills where Italian metodo classico sparkling wine was born in 1961. The estate produced Franciacorta's first ever bottle and remains the appellation's largest single producer, working 85 hectares of certified organic vineyards around the sixteenth-century Palazzo Lana. The Ziliani family, second generation in charge, builds an annual range that climbs from the everyday Cuvee Imperiale to the long-aged Palazzo Lana Riserva.
Lombardy
Bookable experiences, curated by our editors. External booking where marked.
Year-round guided tour of the underground galleries that date to 1680, ten metres below ground, where the estate ages its flagship cuvees and still keeps the very first bottle of Franciacorta ever produced. The visit closes with a tasting of the Berlucchi range and can be combined with private-event hire of the historic spaces.
Book this experienceYear-round guided tour of the underground galleries that date to 1680, ten metres below ground, where the estate ages its flagship cuvees and still keeps the very first bottle of Franciacorta ever produced. The visit closes with a tasting of the Berlucchi range and can be combined with private-event hire of the historic spaces.
Book this experienceThe encounter that changed Franciacorta happened in 1955, when a young oenologist called Franco Ziliani was shown into the drawing room of Palazzo Lana to advise count Guido Berlucchi on a troublesome estate white. Ziliani's counter-proposal, to attempt a bottle-fermented sparkling wine in the French style, found a willing listener. Together with their friend Giorgio Lanciani, the three pursued an idea that had no precedent in Italy at the time, and in 1961 they sealed three thousand bottles of Pinot di Franciacorta. Uncorked the following year, those bottles became the founding act of an entire denomination.
Six decades later the project is run by Ziliani's three children, Cristina, Arturo and Paolo, who launched the Berlucchi '61, Berlucchi '61 Nature and Palazzo Lana Riserva ranges and steered the company toward an explicit sustainability platform. The estate is the largest single producer in Franciacorta and the unofficial reference point for the appellation's metodo classico canon, with a portfolio that combines Cuvee Imperiale's accessible identity with the upper-tier Palazzo Lana Riserva.
The vineyards are the heart of the operation. Berlucchi works 85 hectares of estate plots and draws from roughly 450 hectares more through long-standing partner growers. The estate vineyards have been certified organic since 2016, with infrared mapping, soil-biodiversity analysis and selective harvest replacing routine inputs. The team has also published annual sustainability reports since 2019, measured its carbon footprint under ISO 14064 for over a decade, and experiments with native varieties such as Erbamat alongside the appellation's pillars Chardonnay and Pinot Nero.
The Palazzo Lana cellars sit ten metres underground in galleries that date to 1680, and they still age the estate's flagship cuvees. The historic spaces also keep the very first bottle of Franciacorta ever produced, and they double as the setting for guided tastings and occasional private events. Visits are run year-round by appointment via the official cellar booking site.
For anyone trying to understand modern Franciacorta, the Berlucchi name is the obvious starting point. The estate's scale, its early certification choices and the continuity of the founding family give it a different role from the boutique houses on the hills around it: it is the producer that explains, by its own range, how the appellation went from one experimental cuvee in 1961 to a strict modern production protocol still tightening today.
Editorially verified by ItalianWines.co.uk.
Plate I · LOMBARDY
Guido Berlucchi's current bottle selection is easiest to understand through Chardonnay.
7 wines 
Tastings
Tours
Accommodation
Walk-ins welcome 
