The hills where our cellar stands have a thousand-year history.
The moraines of the Lake welcome the vine from the end of the Pleistocene, a geological era between 126 thousand and 11,600 years ago, characterized by repeated glaciations. During this period, the area that today is occupied by the Benaco, the original name of Lake Garda, was covered by the southern extremities of the ancient Atesino glacier.
The erosive process induced by the glacier caused on one hand the birth of Lake Garda, and on the other the formation of the morainic hills on which today the vineyards lay. These hills have an altitude between 50 and 350 m s.l.m. and the slopes are strongly inclined, ranging from 6 to 20%. The plains that lie between a moraine and the other, were the site of ancient marshes. The landscape is therefore very discontinuous and fascinating. Equally variable are the soil and subsoil that pass, within a few meters, from gravely/stony to clayey and compact.
Another factor that strongly characterizes the terroir is the climate. The currents coming from the lake, mitigating the temperatures, create a microclimate which tends to be atypical Mediterranean for an area of northern Italy. Thanks to these climatic characteristics, the Garda area becomes particularly suited for the cultivation of wine vines and olive trees.
With this background information in mind we can now look at the composition of the two most important Denominations of the area: the DOC Custoza and the DOC Bardolino. For the exact composition of the disciplinary specifications, you will find the official Custoza one here, and the Bardolino one here-
Both use grapes that are a collection of several varieties that may have very different maturation periods, from early to late.
With Custoza the varieties that make up our wine are Tocai Friulano (early), Riesling (normal / early), Trebbiano (normal / late) and Garganega (late); for Bardolino the specifications?? call for the assembly of Corvina and Rondinella, which have similar maturation periods.
In our 20 hectare vineyard there are therefore different varieties of grapes, which have different needs depending on the specific type of grape and/or soil.
