How many times have you tried to be “the best version of yourself”, but the daily routine and environment that you need to fit in have forced you to wake up in the morning the same old grumpy you? Can you imagine that so many winemakers find themselves in the exact same loop, producing wines that fit the market and satisfy the most common consumer’s requests but that are not exactly the wines they could and would love to make?

Anticelebration shows these winemakers a way out of the loop: we give them the space where they can be the best versions of themselves and create the wine they have always wanted without fearing whether it would be sold in a local restaurant or appreciated by an average consumer. It gives a chance to make their dream come true and concentrate purely on the art of winemaking, without being distracted by endless “BUTs”.

RIGHT PLACE

Anticelebration is a sparkling wine produced with the traditional method (“metodo classico”) from carefully selected base wines of local Italian winemakers with the addition of a special bottling liquor prepared specifically for each occasion by Anticelebration founders together with Chief Consulting Winemaker Roberto Alfieri.

Roberto Alfieri © Anticelebration

The traditional method of sparkling wine production presumes that a dry still base wine (or a mixture of such wines) undergoes the re-fermentation (second fermentation) process directly in the bottle after the addition of the bottling liquor.

"We want to make it clear to the market that the Marche region in Italy is a great place to implement the ‘traditional method’ sparkling wine and, through this, you can get different products with different characteristics even though they are made from the same grapes," Alfieri says.

Indeed, the whole region of Marche is somewhat a crowd of small sparkling wine producers and connoisseurs. Few people know that Francesco Scacchi, a doctor from Fabriano, described the method of turning still wines into sparkling as early as in 1622 (so, almost 50 years before the French monk Dom Perignon sparkled the Champagne wines), as discovered by local historian Alvise Manni and oenologist Francesco Sbaffi in a written tractate by Scacchi titled “De salubri potu dissertatio" [“On Healthy Drinking”]. 

“Marche has very different lands in it, including hills in the vicinity of the sea and areas almost reaching the Sibillini mountains. All these characteristics of the soil, this presence of very young soils and others that are very old give different characteristics to the wines and should be enhanced through winemaking,” Alfieri says.

RIGHT BOTTLE

The liquor that our team adds to the initial cuvée is always individually designed by its experts for each selection, which is around 300 bottles from the producer. Therefore, the final product, which is the sparkling wine with the “Anticelebration” label, cannot be found directly at the winery where the base wine was taken from, nor can it be repeated by the producer himself.

On many occasions, an Anticelebration bottle becomes a manifestation of the producer’s boldest ideas and hopes, which he otherwise wouldn’t dare to implement, having to follow the demands of the consumer and adding sugar to his wines in order to make them saleable at a local bar or restaurant.

“The initial product is enhanced by the liquor because there is no sugar added. We try to spotlight the [beauty] of the initial wine so that it can be seen and appreciated by the consumer, but also by the producer himself. Many times, wines have a lot of potential if they are not modified,” Alfieri says.

For many local wines, an Anticilebration bottle is the only occasion to “come out in their true colors,” without fear of being judged by an average consumer. An Anticelebration client is a person who values pure tastes and who does research to find them. That is why there is no physical Anticelebration shop – in order to keep prices acceptable, we stick to the direct online marketing strategy.

RIGHT TIME

Anticelebration project was born at times when posh, loud parties and champagne showers had lost their coolness and trendiness.

Remuage, Cuvée V © Anticelebration

It is no longer ‘chic’ to have a pool full of champagne at your party. What is considered to be chic instead is to consume responsibly and sustainably. Quiet luxury is what is really trendy nowadays.

In any case – be it the desire to follow the quiet luxury trend, the decision to consume responsibly and support local winemakers, or just an attempt to escape for a few moments from a growingly hectic and unstable outside world – a treat with a glass of an Anticelebration sparkling wine in the privacy of your mind may be the right answer.