The Guru of Gussago
How Nicola Gatta turned family vineyards into Italy’s most innovative sparkling wine project.
Written by Jeff Porter
Artwork by Cerise Zelenetz
Picture this: You're 20 years old, you’ve decided university is not for you, and your father and uncle are renowned vineyard managers, working some of the most famous vineyards in Italy. But since you were little, you played and worked in the family's vineyards atop Gussago, a small village in Lombardy near Brescia, and now you wonder, what could I do with those vines?
Meet Nicola Gatta, that young man saw something different in those vines. While most would follow the established path of a successful family business, he did not. Nicola saw those hills as something different, a chance to redefine what Italian sparkling wine could be, but he did not even know that at the time. He just knew he needed to do something on those hills.
"I found the work boring and conventional," Gatta recalls of his early days. "I wanted something different when I graduated. My energy was high and my care for money was little. I had an ambition."
That ambition has transformed 8.5 hectares of calcareous hillsides into what many consider the most innovative sparkling wine project in Italy today. At 41, Gatta has spent two decades pushing boundaries, making decisions that would make most producers nervous, and creating wines that challenge everything we think we know about metodo classico wines.
Born in Brescia in 1983 and raised in Gussago, Gatta's connection to these hills runs through generations. His grandfather Angelo arrived in the 1960s, purchasing a simple farm where the winery stands today. By the late 1980s, his father Mario and uncle Sergio had established themselves as vineyard creators, developing sites for prestigious estates like Petra and Ferrari across Italy.
"I learned a lot about the creation and planting of vineyards from my family," Gatta explains. "The when, why, and where to get the most out of the plants."
But while his family built vineyards for others, young Nicola was plotting something entirely different. After graduating from Petrio Agario Technical School in 2001, he briefly tried university in Milan before realizing theory wasn't his thing. "I always loved making the practice versus the theory, I wanted my hands in it."
In 2003, at just 20 years old, Gatta approached his father and uncle with a proposal: let him take over the family's vineyards. They agreed, handing him 4.5 hectares that needed serious rehabilitation. "When you start your work, you have a lot of ideas but little money," he remembers. "I am grateful to my family, who allowed me to start the ideas I had."
Those first years were brutal. "In the beginning, a few great things but many more bad things," he admits. "But this is normal when not working with conventional ideas." He threw away more wine than he wants to recall. Throughout his experiments, he never looked back, knowing that all his work in the vineyards and the cellar would eventually pay off.
What sets Gatta apart isn't just his willingness to experiment—it's his philosophy of learning through opposition. While continuing to work in his family's business to make money, he spent extensive time in Tuscany and Umbria, observing conventional winemaking practices.
"It was important to see what I wanted to do and, more importantly, what I did not want to do," he reflects. "To understand your comfort zone, you need to be uncomfortable. You must have respect for all. You must hear and see the different situations. Sometimes those differences will help improve one's work."
This open-minded approach extends to his peer network. Gatta emphasizes the importance of collaboration among producers, regardless of their methods. "It is very important to have this kind of freedom of sharing of information. From understanding diseases to pruning, fermentation or any situation within the vineyard or cellar."
Gatta's vineyard philosophy centers on micro-terroirs. His 7 hectares in production are divided into six small plots across two villages—Cellatica and Gussago. Each tells its own story through soil, exposition, and altitude.
Take Campiani, divided into East (100% Pinot Noir) and West (75% Chardonnay) parcels. The 220-million-year-old soils, rich in iron-laden clay with calcareous subsoil, give each wine distinct personalities. Or Cudula, where 150-million-year-old limestone creates wines of remarkable saltiness and energy.
"It is not about the quantity of bottles but to help show the expression of each place," Gatta explains. His newest project, Civine, sits at 650 meters elevation—a direct response to climate change, featuring limestone soil rich in basalt where dramatic temperature swings create the ideal conditions to make wines that speak to their place.
Gatta believes in less, way less. The less inputs into the vineyards and into the cellar create wines, in his opinion, that will speak in volumes that would not happen if he intervened more with his hands. He uses only copper, SO2, and zeolite (a clay-based treatment) in the vineyards. In the cellar? Zero sulfites added. Ever. All fermentations happen with indigenous yeasts—both primary and secondary. No clarifying agents. No stabilizers. Just grapes, time, and patience measured not in months but in "lune" (moons).
His perpetual cuvées—blends of multiple vintages aged together—represent perhaps his most ambitious idea.. "The vintage wine is a photo, a snapshot of that moment in time," he explains. "The perpetual cuvée is a film. You can feel the influence of different vintages in the same moment." To Nicola both wines are important in telling the story of the land and time but via the perpetual cuvee he can introduce people to his vineyards via a three-dimensional flavor profile that only successive vintages blended together can give. “You can feel the influence of different vintages at the same moment; it is my identity card.”
Two trips to Champagne, at 18 and again at 40, fundamentally shaped Gatta's vision. Tasting wines from grower-producers like Selosse, Béréche, and Savart opened his eyes to what was possible.
"They had/have courage to make something different and change the boring nature of wine. They inspired me through their work, willingness to experiment, and, most importantly, their vineyard practices."
But Gatta isn't trying to make Champagne in Italy. He's creating something entirely new—wines that express the specific calcareous soils of Gussago without compromise.
In January 2024, Gatta planted Pinot Blanc using massal selection from vines originally planted in 1929, which were sadly ripped out just after he took some clippings. It's a perfect metaphor for his approach: honoring history while pushing forward. "This type of land is not for all. It is important to give its life back. The people can look to the hills and see the past. The new vigneron provides a link to the past."
His production has grown from 10,000 bottles in 2010 to 45,000 in 2024, with a goal of 55,000. But numbers aren't the point. With just three full-time employees (swelling to 15 during harvest), Gatta maintains the artisanal approach that allows him to make decisions plot by plot, vintage by vintage.
"It is ok to change your mind," he says, acknowledging that his children might take the winery in entirely different directions. "Details are key to every aspect."
Spend time with Nicola Gatta's wines and you understand why they're creating such excitement. These aren't just sparkling wines—they're liquid philosophy, each bottle a meditation on place, time, and possibility. The Blanc de Blancs Nature aged 50 “moons” with 11 vintages within the cuvée shows what Chardonnay can achieve here in the hills outside of Brescia. The wine is both opulent and tense at the same moment. Gatta’s wines are more a feeling than a flavor; they resonate in another place above the tasting note.
When asked to describe his project in five words, Gatta chooses: "Gussago, Suoli, Calcarei, Nessun Compromesso" (Gussago, Soils, Calcareous, No Compromise). It's a manifesto disguised as a tagline.
"The first 10 to 15 years were very difficult," Gatta admits. But those years of struggle, experimentation, and learning have produced something extraordinary: a new paradigm for Italian sparkling wine that respects tradition while fearlessly charting new territory.
As climate change forces producers worldwide to reconsider their approaches, Gatta's focus on altitude, exposition, and adaptive viticulture positions him at the forefront of sustainable winemaking. His new plantings at 600+ meters elevation show a producer thinking not just about today's wines but about what his children—and their children—will inherit.
In an industry often obsessed with following established rules, Nicola Gatta stands as proof that the most exciting wines come from those brave enough to write their own. His work hasn't just pushed Italian sparkling wine to its next evolutionary point—it's shown us what happens when a winemaker refuses to compromise between tradition and innovation, choosing instead to honor both.
"Approfondire. Conoscere il vigneron. Bere insieme," reads his website. Deepen. Know the vigneron. Drink together. In those nine words lies everything you need to know about Nicola Gatta: This is personal. This is revolutionary. And this is just the beginning.