Winery Contratto
Canelli, Piedmont
Founded in 1867 by Giuseppe Contratto, it was among the first Italian houses to make sparkling wine using the classic method, following the tradition learned in Champagne and brought to Canelli by Carlo Gancia a few years earlier. From 1872 the company had more than two hundred workers hand-dig the tuff tunnels that now cover around 5,000 square metres and were recognised as UNESCO World Heritage in 2014 as Canelli's Underground Cathedrals. Descending as far as thirty metres, visitors find the bottles ageing, where riddling is still done by hand following tradition. Guided tours trace this history and offer a tasting of the company's Alta Langa and Metodo Classico sparkling wines.