Spumante is Italian sparkling wine. Spumante means "foaming" and refers to all Italian sparkling wines including dry, sweet and semi-sweet varieties. The types of bubbles can vary in spumantes. Some spumantes have large bubbles that rise to the surface, then fizz and explode, while other spumantes have tiny, sparkling bubbles. Italy is the world's largest producer of the widest range of sparkling, or bubbly wines.

Although many people think that Champagne was the first sparkling wine, the Romans made sparkling wine a few thousand years before Champagne was ever made. As early as the third century BC, spumante, or "foaming wine," containing bubbles caused by carbon dioxide was prepared and consumed by the Romans. The mastos, or Roman wine goblet, was developed and used at least a thousand years before Madame de Pompadour was credited with inventing a drinking vessel for champagne.

There are two ways to make spumante. The metodo classico or metodo tradizionale, in Italian and methode Champenoise in French, is the Champagne method that allows the spumante to ferment in the bottle. Riddling, or boccatura in Italian, is the turning of spumante to allow the sediment from the fermentation in the bottle to move upward toward the bottle's neck. The other way to make spumante is the tank method, called the metodo charmat, in which the wine is put into a sealed tank to ferment.

Asti spumante is the most well-know Italian sparkling wine. It is made in the tank-fermented manner and not in the metodo tradizionale. Asti spumante has a rich aroma from its Moscato grapes. The sweet-tasting Asti spumante is popular in the United States, but many Italians prefer a drier spumante such as those made from the Chardonnay and Pinot grapes that are used in Champagne.

Italy has about 20 wine producing regions. Many of the metodo tradizionale grapes are grown in the Franciacorta region of Italy, while many Asti spumante grapes come from the Piedmont region. Lambrusco is an extremely popular dry spumante in Italy and the Emilia-Romagna region is noted for producing Lambrusco. The Lambrusco spumante produced for sale to foreign markets is often sweeter than the version consumed in Italy.