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Above: Bottega del Vino glasses come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Image courtesy Bottega del Vino Crystal.Below: Zamuner wines hail from Villa La Mattarana in Verona, Italy. Image courtesy Zamuner.stems are drawn out of the main body of the bowl, creating a one-piece glass gracefulin every detail and much stronger than two-piece, machine-made chalices.Around the same time, in the early to mid-eighties, aman by the name of Daniele Zamuner, an engineer with along family history in manufacturing, began feeling the pangsof a desire felt by many but realized by only a few: to createa world class wine with his name on the label. More specifically,he was determined to make a pinot noir-based,French-style sparkling wine at home in Italy.There were twoobvious and daunting challenges that faced him: first, no producerin the region made a sparkling wine. Second—andperhaps more challenging—no producer in the region wasgrowing any pinot noir (known as pinot nero in Italy), so nolocal expertise was available. It would be “on the job” trainingin the truest sense of the word.As luck would have it, his family had a piece of land in the hamlet of Sona,located about halfway between Verona and Lake Garda. The ground there wasquite unique because it was situated right where a glacier had stopped tens ofthousands of years ago, leaving a deposit of the chalky type of soil native to theregion of Champagne and so well suited for the growing of pinot noir.Additionally,a micro-climate existed—a result of the interplay of warm air coming off theAdriatic Sea and cool air from the glacial runoff-fed LakeGarda—which provided the warm days and cool nights necessaryto successfully grow pinot noir. In the mid-eighties,existing olive and fig trees were removed and replaced withthe first Zamuner vines, allowing the cultivation of Zamuner’snow-famed wine.During the early nineties, Barzan and Zamuner beganto work together; Zamuner supplied his drive for perfectionin his beloved vineyard and Barzan assisted with his vastknowledge of the technical side of champagne. In April of2006, the two achieved a milestone when the officials ofVinItaly, the world renowned wine trade exhibition, presenteda seven vintage vertical of Zamuner Millisime Spumante. Each vintage was areminder of the individuality of each year’s character and—presented proudly inBarzan’s crystal stems—provided a great-tasting experience for visitors. Perhapsmore importantly though, the exhibition provided a great deal of satisfaction forthese two true gentlemen of Verona. Carlo BiggioggeroArt and Living 91