Wines from Veneto

"I am particularly attached to this wine, which is named after the border collie that lived with us for fifteen years. Otto is the youngest wine we have, fresh and ready to drink. A wine you should always have in your cellar." Graziano Prà

Rêverie means daydream. Gaspari deliberately chose the French word – for a wine that requires no concentration, no patience, no prior knowledge. You pour, you drink, you are happy. This is more difficult to create than it sounds. 2025 was a warm, generous vintage in Valpolicella – mediterranean fruit, ripe flavours, a natural balance between power and freshness. The fact that the Rêverie nevertheless remains light is due to the decision: early harvest, short skin contact, no intervention, no wood. Celestino Gaspari does not intervene in a wine that shines on its own – he leaves it.

A top-class Valpolicella, fine and haunting spicy flavour with a full and fleshy fruit development of blackberries and cherries. Medium to full-bodied with good intensity and a firm tannin structure, with a wonderfully pleasant bitter note on the long finish. The delicious harmony between aroma and flavour is a delight. SUPERIORE.DE

In 2019, UNESCO declared the Prosecco hills between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene a World Heritage Site. Not because of the wine – but because of the landscape that produces it: steep moraine slopes, stepped in terraces, calcareous soil with marl and clay, lapped by a breeze from the Adriatic Sea. Villa Sandi cultivates over eighty hectares of its own land in this World Heritage area – and for decades has been one of the addresses that have secured Prosecco's reputation as a serious sparkling wine. 100% Glera, hand-picked, pneumatic pressing. Fermentation at a controlled 15–16 °C according to the Charmat method – gentle, flavour-preserving, typical of the region. The Millesimato is a promise of quality: The grapes from one vintage are so good that they do not need to be blended across vintages – they stand on their own every year.

"I spent a long time looking for the area in Valpolicella that would best suit my style. Valpolicella Morandina is the freshest and sharpest interpretation of my red wines." Graziano Prà

The name is a reference: the Brenta, the river that runs through the Veneto region from the Alps to the lagoon – sometimes gently, sometimes with vigour. The wine is very similar. 55% Merlot, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon from the best vineyards of the Breganze DOC, on volcanic-tuff soil. Hand-picked, maceration for several days, fermentation in steel tanks. During ageing, the wine is divided: one half remains in steel, the other matures for twelve months in French barriques – one third of which is new.

A single-vineyard Soave as it should be: pure Garganega from vines over thirty years old on volcanic soils in Colognola ai Colli. The Castagnedi brothers press the whole grapes under nitrogen and use dry ice to preserve the aromas even before fermentation – a technique that demands precision and rewards character. Six months on the fine lees give the wine depth without taking away its freshness.

In any other cellar it would be a disaster: Amarone that turns to vinegar. In the Rizzardis' cellar in Negrar, it is a family tradition – and one that is older than any wine in the house. The "madre", the vinegar mother, dates back to the beginning of the last century: a living organism that has been absorbing and transforming every new Amarone vintage for over a hundred years. For ten years, the vinegar travels through ten barrels of descending size – of oak, pear, apple, cherry and almond. Each wood leaves its signature, until in the end a concentrate is created that blurs the boundary between flavour and wine.

A wine that was voluntarily relegated. Munus was the flagship among the Bardolino red wines from Guerrieri Rizzardi – a Bardolino Superiore DOCG, Italy's highest classification level. Since 2021, it has borne the seemingly more modest title of Rosso Veronese IGT. Not out of negligence, but out of conviction: The DOCG required at least twelve months of wood in each vintage, and Giuseppe Rizzardi decided that the wine should dictate the ageing process – not the regulations.

Behind the Castello di Soave, invisible to the tourists enjoying the view of the plain, lies a vineyard that epitomises the opposite of what Soave has been for decades. No mass product, no compromise. Ferra is single-varietal Garganega from volcanic gravel – of a hilltop that has belonged to the Rizzardi family since 1977 and has been bottled as a single vineyard since 2014. What makes this Soave stand out from the standard, pleasing wines: Garganega gets the full stage here. Fermentation in glazed cement tanks preserves the mineral precision, while six months in large foudres give the wine texture, depth and richness that go far beyond what is expected from the appellation.

In the 1820s, wine merchants knew three Bardolino crus that existed in Switzerland's grand hotels alongside Burgundy and Beaujolais. In 1968, they were lost in the DOC regulations. They have been back since 2021 – and Montebaldo, the northernmost and highest subzone on the foothills of Monte Baldo, is perhaps the most exciting. Guerrieri Rizzardi's response to this rediscovery: 95 per cent Corvina – the highest percentage the winery has ever bottled –complemented by a touch of Rondinella, vinified completely without wood. This is not a concession to light summer enjoyment. It is a statement about transparency: the grape speaks exclusively here, and the moraine soil of Cavaion gives it a resonance chamber.

While the Rive wines from Andreola each bring a single vineyard to the glass, the Dirupo tells a different story: that of the entire denominazione. For this brut, Stefano Pola draws on the privilege of a vineyard network that extends across all 15 municipalities of the Valdobbiadene DOCG – from gentle slopes at 200 metres to extreme steep slopes at 500 metres, on limestone marls, sandstones, conglomerates and deep clay soils. No other wine of the house represents the territory so completely. The choice of grape varieties emphasises this approach: 90% Glera, supplemented by Bianchetta and Perera – two indigenous varieties of the hills, which have long since disappeared from standard Prosecco, but here they quietly contribute to the aromatic depth.

If any wine has made an appellation world-famous, it is this one: Santa Cristina comes from the Vigneto Massoni, Zenato's oldest and most historic vineyard, which is regarded as the greatest site in the entire Lugana region. Here, on the calcareous and clayey moraine soils south of Lake Garda, Trebbiano di Lugana reaches its most elegant expression. The vines at Podere Massoni benefit from an ideal southern exposure: optimal sunshine during the day and cool nights from the lake. After gentle pressing, the must ferments for 15–20 days at a controlled 16–18°C, followed by five months of ageing in stainless steel and further bottle ageing.

We are talking about the summit of the extinct volcano Monte Foscarino, 350 metres above sea level. Up here, where volcanic tuff forms the base and oak forests provide cool night breezes, one of Roberto's most precious treasures has been thriving since 1982. The Capitel Foscarino was already a legend when Roberto was still part of the Soave consortium – today it stands for pure typicality of the vineyard without regulatory DOC compromises. 90 per cent Garganega and ten per cent Chardonnay from horizontally trained vines that are rigorously thinned out in June so that only the most vigorous berries survive.

Mozart knew what he was doing. In the second act of Don Giovanni, his hero calls for wine – and it is the Marzemino that he desires: "Eccellente Marzemino!" It was to be his last indulgence before his just punishment. The variety, which is related to Refosco and Teroldego, has lost little of its seductive power since then. Maculan cultivates it in Fara Vicentino, on a vineyard called Cornorotto – volcanic tuff hills, mineral-rich soil. The grapes are lightly dried for a week before being placed in steel tanks – a quiet trick that brings concentration and depth without heaviness.

The three sisters from Fittà: Meri, Valentina and Alessandra Tessari have turned the winery founded by their parents Giovanni and Rosetta in 1982 into one of the most respected addresses in Soave Classico. Suavia is the Germanic origin of "Soave" – the name says it all. While their neighbours from the flatlands have long since bowed to industrial pressure, the sisters cultivate exclusively the autochthonous Garganega and Trebbiano di Soave grape varieties on twelve hectares at an altitude of 300 metres. Their vineyards are located on the volcanic hills of Fittà, on copper-red, black and grey soils full of basalt and other volcanic rock. Here, where 50-year-old vines thrive on mineral-rich subsoil, wines of unmistakable expressiveness are produced.