Just a short distance from Milan, Italian sparkling wine region Franciacorta languishes in the long shadows cast by two better known but vastly different types of effervescent wine, Champagne and Prosecco. The first, which every wine lover knows is only produced in the Champagne region of France, is the luxurious standard-bearer for sparkling wine around the world.

The second — which, like Franciacorta, also hails from Northern Italy — is now the planet’s most popular style of fizzy wine. Italian sparkling is often lumped into one category, unfortunately thought of as cheap and cheery, but that is not the case at all. We are here to tell you that Franciacorta deserves a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T!