Richness and quality of the Italian wines - Veneto region

The times of the Republic of Venice, also known as "Serenissima" were characterized by a flourishing cultural richness for both Veneto and Lake Garda; it was a period of frequent and strong exchanges in which Venice represented an open door towards the East.

The excellence of the Venetian culture, food and wines derives from this cultural background.
Veneto is nestled between the Alps and the sea, a position that enables different weather conditions to coexist side by side.
Thanks to this climatic variety Veneto can produce many high quality wines, as no other part of Italy can.

Wine production is particularly developed in the province of Verona.

Moving from Lake Garda to Valpolicella both land and grapes change completely.
The morainic hills in the inland surrounding Lake Garda present a dry loose soil with few clay and pebbles.
On the other hand, the soil in Valpolicella is almost volcanic with a high percentage of clay.
The province of Verona has four finest quality PDO wines: Lugana and Custoza are white wines, Chiaretto and Bardolino are light rosé and red wines and, moving inland, Valpolicella presents its strong-structured red wines.

Lugana

70.000 hectolitres are produced every year.
This wine is obtained from the indigenous grapes variety of Trebbiano.
The clayish soil gives acidity and structure to the wine.
It's a full-bodied white wine with light aromatic notes.
This wine is enjoyable even if it is aged for a few years.

Custoza

100.000 hectolitres are produced every year.
This wine is obtained from the indigenous grapes variety of Fernanda, Garganega, Trebbiano and Trebbianello.
The soil is morainic, as in Bardolino, giving flavour and a good degree of acidity to this wine.
It's a fresh white wine with aromatic notes, drinkable and easy to pair.
Fernanda variety has a semi-aromatic note.

Superior

Custoza Superior has a good longevity, with some quite interesting 10 years aged wines.

Bardolino

270.000 hectolitres of red and rosé wine are produced every year.
It is obtained from the indigenous grapes variety of Rondinella and Corvina (the second being the most important).
The soil is moraininc and gives wine great flavour.

Rosé

The rosé variety is also called Chiaretto: it is made through a short maceration of the grapes skins and it is left to ferment as a white wine. Chiaretto is an enjoyable summer wine to be drunk by the Lake shore; it is really drinkable.

Red

This spicy red wine presenting a definite flavour with a subtle note of cherry can be easily paired with lake fish as, for instance, grilled sardines.
It's a light wine presenting a gustatory complexity.

Valpolicella

350.000 hectolitres of wine are produced every year.
This wine is obtained from the indigenous grapes variety of Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella.
It is characterized by a mountain nature: a kind of wine connected to hunting rather than fishing.
The withering of grapes enables to obtain a powerful and strong-structured wine which can express different sensations over the years.

The ripasso

It is obtained through the union of Valpolicella with Amarone.
A long-lived, well-structured wine which do not present the density of Amarone.