Vietti Vivace Freisa

Freisa is a little-seen grape variety typical of southern Piedmont, and Vietti's Langhe Freisa Vivace is definitely not a run-of-the-mill red wine. After a relatively normal initial fermentation, Vietti adds some unfermented juice that was held back after crushing to the finished wine, then bottles the mixture. The sugar in the juice begins a new fermentation in the bottle, although there is variation between bottles, so the resulting sweetness-effervescence balance is not always the same. This is somewhat similar to sparkling wine production, but the amount of sugar involved is much less, so the final wine is just a bit fizzy (vivace, lively)and, of course, red.