Wine Tours in Veneto
If you are asked to think of a romantic city, where springs to mind? Most likely it is Venice, right? The vast majority of people rank this city of canals and gondolas as the most romantic in the world. Luckily our wine tours in Veneto can include this marvelous place, plus Verona of Romeo and Juliet fame. The wine region which encompasses these two cities is delightful, and the wines are world-class. You can ask us to base you in either city, or out in the countryside, or in the vineyard so you can try Veneto wines where they are made.
Valpolicella | The Young and Bright
With the Valpolicella grapes of Corvina, Rondinella, and Molinara coming in many guises we need to show you them all. In its youngest incarnation (Novello), the blend is created and released quickly to generate income for the wineries while they work on the complex process that gives us more highly crafted offerings. At some wineries we might view all facets of the operation; the vineyards, presses, tank rooms, bottling, cellars, and do a tasting of course. If it’s possible to taste wines across the entire quality range at one winery we will do so. We always start with Novello, Classico, and Superiore, and move up the scale from there.
Oh the beauty of Venice, romance, a rich history, a wealth of culture and of course wine!
Extra Bump & Dried Grapes
At certain times of the year we may see the grapes actually being dried, at other times we will see grapes on the vines, or witness the harvest, or maybe we will coincide with the pressing and fermentation taking place. Whenever you visit there will be something to see of course.
The winery of Roberto Mazzi and Sons is one of our favorites and we will spend plenty of time at this family-run concern, in fact, you might choose to stay here as they have a B&B. After our tour and tasting, we could also eat in the restaurant, we will talk to you about the options. When we arrive in the village of Negrar di Valpolicella, which is only 20 minutes drive from Verona, we will start with a tour of a refurbished water mill and museum on the property. Then we move on to the winemaking facilities including the lovely cellar you see below.
We spend time at the lovely Roberto Mazzi winery in Valpolicella, one of our great favorites
Our tasting at Mazzi will start with Valpolicella Clasico, and then you will enjoy their Superiore. You will sense the differences in the standards and levels of Valpolicella which you can see in the pyramid graphic below. We won’t taste Ripasso here at Mazzi, but we will elsewhere. We will now jump up to their top-level Amarone wine and try two “cru” productions, Villa and Castel. The differences between Clasico, Superiore, and Amarone will now be showing themselves and the changes in complexity and profiles that you feel will show why there is such a difference in the prices of such wines.
When we are done at Mazzi, which may be after lunch, we will head off to our second winery. There are a number of options that we love, the Corte Sant’Alda, Aldegheri or Quintarelli are just three to mention.
Amarone | The Big Dog!
An example of a visit to Quintarelli would include viewing the drying room on the upper floor where, from September to January or February, whole bunches of Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella rest on wooden shelves as they desiccate in order to produce the big dog of the Veneto, Amarone. Walking downstairs you will see with many examples of oak vessels of all sizes, huge 4500-liter foudres, the traditional Italian oval-shaped Botti plus Burgundy-style barriques.
This wide array of aging options offers the winemaker a number of choices on how and what to produce in terms of quality and profile. Here there are family portraits decorating the walls, a library of past vintages too, the place really has a lot of charm plus walking with Francesco, Bepi’s nephew who normally runs the wine tasting experiences really adds to the gravitas of the winery.
A map of the main wine-growing regions in North-east Italy, including the world-famous Veneto
At some point during the day, we will also try Recioto Della Valpolicella. Legend has it that dry style Amarone was born after a Recioto fermentation was left too long and all the sugar was fermented. Recioto is intentionally left with residual sugar, we will show you this wine during our wine tours in Veneto. We will also encounter the “Ripasso” style, we can leave that description for the day you taste it. So you can see, we try to show you the whole range of “Valpo”, plus we will show you Soave and Bardolino. You can clearly see you need more than one day, three would be best, but in two days we can show you quite a lot. And don’t forget to tell us if you wish to have cultural, historical, gastronomic, or active experiences blended in. Also, if you fancy making a combo we can link you to our wine tours in Piemont or Chianti.
