The best Italian wineries.
For Antonio Santarelli Casale del Giglio was the family estate, where as a child he spent weekends and tried the first rides with its motorbike. But, when he was twenty–five and he began to work on the farm with his father Dino, understood how those reclaimed land of the Pontine Marshes are a virgin area on which to try all possible. The absence of a winemaking past became, in this way, a crucial stimulus to the maximum degree of freedom to innovate. He called at his side ampelographers and university researchers, and in 1985, with his father Dino, gave life to a project that planted on his land almost 60 different experimental grape varieties.
The patterns of vine cultivation to which this research are inspired are those practiced in Bordeaux, in Australia and in California, which are exposed to the influences of the territories of the Coast, exactly like the Pontine Marshes, which benefits of the influence of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
According to the philosophy of Casale del Giglio, the future development of Italian viticulture lies not only in the consolidation of picture of areas of great tradition, but also in obtaining, through appropriate viticultural and winemaking choices, a production of high quality, with the right value for money, in territories still poorly understood from the point of view of their wine–growing and wine–making potential.
A complex and risky adventure, never attempted in such a scientific way, of which the oenologist of the company Paolo Tiefenthaler has become an interpreter.
An adventure that pays for the bravery with the first important results on Syrah and Petit Verdot red grapes, and white grapes like Viognier, Chardonnay and Sauvignon, which give rise to different labels from a single grape variety or by blending, always at an interesting value for money.
Casale del Giglio was founded in 1967 by Dr. Berardino Santarelli, original of Amatrice, and is located in the Pontine Marshes resort in Le Ferriere locality, in the Municipality of Aprilia, in the province of Latina, about 50 kilometers south of Rome. This area is represented, compared to other areas of Lazio and other regions of Italy, a territory to be explored from the point of view of wine.
In the mid–nineteenth century in Pantelleria, Andrea I Pandolfo, great–grandfather of the current owner Gabriele, began to plant vines and to produce wines made from Zibibbo grapes.
In 1880, Andrea I sold the small vineyards in the island and bought 60 hectares of virgin land in northern Tunisia and precisely in Khanguet Gare, in Cape Bon.
The first vines were planted, the first grapes harvested and, at the early twentieth century, Andrea I and his son Giovanni started producing quality wines in their own winery, so that from the port of Tunis ships full of their wine to serve the best markets in France left.
In 1938, Andrea II, son of Giovanni, only sixteen years old, took over the company and continued with courage and effort to grow the reputation and the quality of the wines. But a terrible disease, phylloxera, arrived in Tunisia destroying all the vineyards of the company. The dry grapes were burned and the coal produced was sold in the market of Tunis.
They were very hard years. From France, the first resistant to disease grafted cuttings arrived, and the red and desolate lands began to color again of green vine leaves and generous bunches of grapes.
On 12th May 1964, the then President of Tunisia, Harbib Bourguiba, with an ordinance entered in the history, expropriated all the assets and properties of foreigners in Tunisia. Suddenly, all the work and sacrifices of a life were canceled and the Pandolfo family had to leave the country and divide between France and Italy. Andrea II, then 42–year–old, with his wife Elena and his sons decided to come to Italy to buy a small farm, the 1720 of Via Renibbio, near Terracina, to start again to work that hated and beloved land and to collect, with the harvest of 1968, the first grapes to make wine.
The first customers, the first bottles with handwritten labels, the first chestnut barrels and the winery started to enter among the first wine realities in the Pontine area. In 1976 he Andrea II Pandolfo died and his sons, flanked by their mother Elena, decided to continue the dream that had began 150 years before.
In this way, the "Sant’Andrea" company was founded, which reminds of the name of its founder. Currently, the company is run by Gabriele Pandolfo with his wife Enza, his son Andrea III and his sister–in–law Ornella; all aided by the constant and vigilant present of mother Elena.
In recent years, the winery has been completely renewed and adapted to the most modern technologies to obtain quality wines.
Soft presses to get sweet and precious must, small steel tanks with temperature control to enhance and to better preserve the aroma of wines, small autoclaves for the production of special and peculiar sparkling wines, ultimate generation vinificators to extract from red grapes intense color and tannins, oak barrels to give the wine aromas and unique features, a modern bottling line, finally, to capture all this in a precious bottle.
However, all the efforts made in the winery are made with the specific task of assisting in the best way what nature gives us in the vineyard.
I belong to the fifth generation of vinegrowers and winemakers of Valpolicella. Amarone, Recioto, Valpolicella in itself, are known by experts all over the world. This success has established itself thanks to families like mine, which over time have worked with dedication on the pursuit of quality. When you continue a family tradition, on the one hand there is the fear of change and on the other hand there is the desire to do something new, to leave a mark.
I created my new company in Fumane in the heart of Valpolicella Classica, where the elements to produce well are all there, from the soil to the climate. As everything that is alive, wine, the result of a constant evolution; I try to guide this evolution in my own way, Secondo Marco.
The company of the Earl Spagnoletti Zeuli has ancient roots, which date back to before 1600.
In the heart of the countryside surrounding Castel del Monte, the Earl of Andria, with a modern entrepreneurial verve and investments in technology and research, dedicates to vines and olive trees an authentic worship.
The agricultural company of Conte Spagnoletti Zeuli products DOC Castel del Monte Wines (Nero di Troia, Montepulciano, Aglianico, Bombino, Pampanuto etc.) and IGT Murgia (Fiano), DOP Terra di Bari subzone Castel del Monte extra virgin olive oil and 100% Italian extra virgin olive oil.
San Domenico and Zagaria are the two estates of the agricultural company of the Earl Spagnoletti Zeuli, in total almost 400 hectares in Agro di Andria, in the province of Bari. Most are dedicated to the cultivation of olive trees, while the foothills are destined to vineyards cultivated in rows of Bombino Nero di Montepulciano and Troia, grape varieties from which the Castel del Monte, glory of the local oenology, is made.
Fostered by a calcareous soil and a mild climate, dry and sunny even in winter, the culture of olive tree growing is practiced with the typical “vaso impalcato” system, with plants 3 to 5 meters high, emptied in the middle, as dictated by the local tradition established in the centuries. They breed, in this way, olives of Coratina and Cima di Bitonto types, the pride of the production typical of the northern area of the province of Bari, that through a clever processing of olives give an oil of great value and excellent organoleptic qualities.
The company has recently designed 6 hectares to experimental nurseries for the adaptation of Leccino and Frantoio, with monocone cultivation: a method that facilitates pruning and mechanical harvesting.
All olive groves are backed by drop irrigation plants, able to relieve each plant with 16 liters of water per hour.
Poderi di San Pietro, built at the seat of the former Agricultural Consortium of San Colombano, in 1998, was taken over by the Neuroniagrari company in 2008.
With its 75 hectares of land, of which about 65 cultivated with vines, and a production volume of 4,500 hectoliters of wine a year, the company is a representative of the wine excellence for the whole district and province of Milan.
In its wine cellar of over 4,000 square meters, including 2,000 square meters underground for the barriques, an intelligent technology is used: all tanks are made of steel, heat–conditioned and saturated with nitrogen. The fining of the wine, then, continues into oak barrels until full ripeness.
But to make wines unforgettable and to make them the best expression of the territory, Poderi di San Pietro has the valuable collaboration of Donato Lanati, an oenologist of international fame.
Poderi di San Pietro, in addition to Vineyards, Winery and a Wine Shop, has also space for wine tastings and events: from the Wine Shop to the Caveau of Barriquerie to the Party Hall, all special places for unconventional events.
But, the current estate, wishing to develop the full potential of this extraordinary territory, wanted the company to be not only winemaking, but also a place of rest and leisure to appreciate the natural and cultural beauty of this area. To respond to this desire, the Trianon farmhouse inn and the La Palazzina Country Club, an oasis of peace surrounded by green vineyards of Poderi di San Pietro.
The Trianon farmhouse inn, a romantic petit chateau, of just 12 rooms, is the perfect place to relax, or for special events. La Palazzina Country Club is a pleasant place to spend the summer with large green areas, two swimming pools, a sandy beach, equipped with sun loungers and umbrellas, soccer fields, tennis courts, beach volleyball court.
Poderi San Pietro is a complete and attentive to the environment company. In effect, recently is has also invested in a photovoltaic system that allows substantial energy savings in all its activities of winemaking.
Growing vines and making wine is not a job like any other, but a form of respect, curiosity and enthusiasm for that wonder of creation that is vine. Only through a rigorous care, a continuous research and the desire to improve, one can sip a wine that is truly a gift of this land.
And this is the mission of Poderi di San Pietro.
In San Colombano, a cozy hamlet located between low Pavia and the flat of Lodi, where the plain turns into picturesque hills, the Panigada family, in addition to the historic store of salami, has been producing for three generations a wine that bears the curious name of "Banino". San Colombano owes its name to the Irish monk that Christianized it in the sixth century and who imported the cultivation of the vine. Its inhabitants are called "Banini", hence the origin of the name of the wine, an exclusive corporate brand.
The hills that rise from the surrounding plains, with an area of approximately 1,400 hectares, date back to the Miocene period, from the geological point of view, when an earthquake would have made them emerge from the sea. This is witnessed by the continuing discoveries of corals, fossils and shells on top of the hills. The Municipality, in effect, hosts a small paleontological museum.
Structure and composition of the soil vary sharply within a few meters, from white soils, rich in clay and limestone, to sandy and silty areas. This diversification of the soils is combined with sun exposure and curves of different level giving rise to a series of very interesting micro–zones and microclimates, which paired with a perfect exposure allow to harvest grapes of the highest quality. The management of the owned vineyards is very attentive to the environmental aspect. To prove this, grass and wildflowers fill vineyards, since no use of herbicides is made. Their mowing and subsequent decomposition nourish vines, not fertilizers of chemical origin.
In the growing season, the fungal protection is implemented using mainly sulfur and copper, without treatment with fungicides.
The harvest, totally manual, is carried out in boxes to protect the integrity and the fragrance of grapes ready to crushing.
The founder Francesco D’Ambra, or Don Ciccio, who was born in 1863 in a family of local growers, dedicated himself, since he was very young, the to the trade of Ischia wine, which was appreciated and consumed in the market of Naples at the end of the century. The business thrived, to start and develop, in this way, a great company in Ischia in the ancient Villa Garavini, which thus became the seat of the company. The sale was extended to the most important regional markets, to expand, then, abroad. Since that time, Ischia has been producing over 250,000 hectoliters of wine. To Francesco D’Ambra, in 1952, his children Mario, Michele and Salvatore succeeded. The Francesco D’Ambra company turned into D’Ambra Vini d’Ischia S.p.A. and a series of transformations began, that today have made of it a model winery. Today, they vinify and bottle Biancolella, Forastera and Per’ ’e Palummo grapes, with modern facilities; they are buying vineyards in the most famous parts of the island, re–planting only local varieties; finally, they are building a new winery in Panza d’Ischia, one of the most important wine–producing areas on the island. In 1984, Mario D’Ambra, who became sole owner of D’Ambra Vini, led the company to a new conquest of domestic and foreign markets. On the death of Mario D’Ambra, his grandchildren, Riccardo, Andrea and Corrado succeeded, who continued the activities based on the principles of a greater selection of vines and increasingly characteristic products. In 2000 the property passed to the enologist Andrea D’Ambra, the youngest of the grandchildren of Mario, who took the line of a family tradition, started in 1888 by his grandfather Francesco, and that is still alive after more than 100 years.
D’Ambra purchases annually about 5,000 quintals of grapes from 150 vinegrowers in Ischia, of which 120 are associated in a Cooperative. The vineyards owned by the company are of four hectares in the locality of Frassitelli, a hectare the locality of Montecorvo. In addition, Casa D’Ambra manages, in conjunction with local vinegrowers – 6 hectares in the most suitable areas of the island. The company focuses strongly on local grape varieties: Biancolella, Forastera, Uvarilla (white) and Piedirosso and Guarnaccia (red). In addition, evidence of attention towards the improvement of the quality of the grapes and the homologation of the old varieties, in 1995 an experimental field was established, a kind of genetic bank for the resumption of disappeared varieties, implanted in the Frassitelli estate.
Cantine Astroni is a winery in Campania, located on the border between Naples and Pozzuoli in the heart of Campi Flegrei on the outer slopes of the crater Astroni – today State Nature Reserve and WWF Oasis. Founded by the will of the Varchetta family, to continue at a high level the best local wine tradition, the company has focused exclusively on native grapes to produce wines with a strong typicality aimed at those who love to search for the territory in the glass.
Cantine Astroni boasts the passion and experience of four generations, and over a century of dedication to wine, as well as the strength of a modern wine culture that respects tradition looking to the future.
In 1891 Vincenzo Varchetta decided that it was necessary to increase his activity, it was time to transform what was an ancient pleasure, the art of making wine, in a thriving commercial activity, but only with the hard work of his son Giovanni, who returned from World War II, that conviction became reality.
Don Giovanni, an expert of every vineyard in Campania, handed down all his passion and experience to his children and grandchildren, who in 1999 with the founding of Cantine Astroni continued to pursue a project of fully exploiting of Campania’s ampelography, offering an oenology of strong traditions enriched by modern techniques of cultivation and winemaking.
The wine for the Martusciello is a way to experience the territory with passion and dedication. Planting vines, following their growth, harvesting grapes, making wine, getting excited about the great vintages and regretting for the unfortunate ones, traveling the world promoting the Campania region, has been and is the life for several generations of the Martuscinello family. The family is entirely devoted to wine and to the Grotta del Sole project.
The Malaspina winery was founded in 1967, when Consolato Malaspina decided to turn his great interest in the wine world in a real passion, committing his future. Since then, he has devoted himself with perseverance and dedication to the production of wines, with the resources of a deeply suited land.
He has been able to convey to his four daughters Domenica, Caterina, Irene and Patrizia the pleasure of working the land and create wines linked to centuries–old traditions that tell about Calabria.
The company is located at the most extreme tip of Calabria, a proud land, wild and fascinating, that continues to impress with its constant changes. The Calabria region has a thousand faces, whose hills, green in the middle of winter and yellow in summer, go down to the sea for a happy gain in scents and flavors. It is right in this context that the vineyard and the olive grove of the company are located.
Founded in 1957, the Criser Wine House has a long family tradition of love and dedication to the land, to the cult of the vine and wine. A family of Calabrian traditions, deeply rooted in the most authentic values, that has been handed down for generations. Today it is a company in full expansion.
The Criser company evolved over time and, while maintaining a perspective aimed at genuineness, commitment in selecting varieties of quality, it makes use of the most modern technologies to achieve high levels of competitiveness and relies on the professionalism of renowned winemakers in research of standards of quality increasingly appropriate to the global market demand.
The philosophy of Cantine Criser is expressed in personal contact with Italian and foreign customers, welcome guests in the corporate structures, where they can enjoy the wide range of wines that the winery offers.
The Criser Wine House produces and bottles the best wines of Calabria, with the aim not only to enhance the wine–making traditions of Calabria, but also to propose to the consumer–connoisseur, the discovery of ancient cultural horizons through a historical journey in the typical places of Calabria: from Krimisa to Scilla.
The ancient name of Calabria, "Oenotria Tellus", ie the Land of wine, is the calling card of this fascinating territory that has always been dedicated to wine production.
At the Statti Farm they are convinced that wine comes first and foremost from the Vineyard: the commitment in the vineyard, in the care and attention to the choices of farming and harvesting methods paving the way for the great wines. For this reason, in the last 15 years we have worked hard in the vineyard and in the cellar, with large investments in plants and men, which have transformed the look of the company.
Vineyards cover an area of 100 hectares, near the hill that protects it from the winds coming from the sea.
There are espalier plants and the breeding technique is classic spurred cordon. Orders allow the mechanization of almost all the works and the vineyard is fertilized, in part, with the manure from the herd.
The harvest is carried out from the end of August/early September until late October, starting with international white and red grapes and concluding with native vines.
The dedication and love for the land, for tradition, for the cultivation of vines and for wine culture that has enabled, in the heart of Magna Graecia, the Fontanarosa Vini company to arise.
It is located in Scanzano Jonico, a charming resort on the Ionian coast of the Lucania area, where an old farmhouse was converted into a house–winery.
The company boasts of being the first in the Metaponto area to have a complete production cycle that goes from the cultivation of grapes to the bottling of wine. This helps to ensure quality control over all phases of the manufacturing process, with the opportunity for the customer, always at the center of the attention, to visit the winery and realize how Fontanarosa wines are the result of both the respect of the traditional workmanship rules and of the most modern winemaking techniques.
The fining of wine is made in small French oak barrels for at least 6 months.
The vineyards were planted in the 70s; the method of planting has proved to be ideal for the climate of the area, characterized by long periods of drought and very high summer temperatures.
Situated in a panoramic position in the hills of Petroio, a small locality in the Vinci municipality, the company has been owned by the Pratelli family since 1963.
The winery, recently renovated, is equipped with cutting–edge technological facilities suitable for the production of quality wine. The company produces two white wines, five red wines, a Vin Santo, two grappas and an extra virgin olive oil. They organize guided tours and tasting of the products of the company, on request.
The company is equipped with all the amenities that characterize a farmhouse inn of quality, where you can stay in the typical Tuscan farmhouses and enjoy nature routes in the hills of Montalbano, Vinci, as well as reach surrounding centers like Florence and Pisa.
Story, passion, elegance: these are the key words that distinguish the Cantine Luvit company. For years Luvit has been looking to markets around the world to offer Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG and Prosecco DOC Treviso. The company, in effect, offers its clients only Prosecco wine in its various types: Sparkling, Bubbly and Still Wines.
The bottles are available in different sizes: 187ml, 200ml, 375ml, 750ml, 1500ml, 3000ml, 6000ml, 9000ml and 15000ml.
In the two classifications you can find Extra–Brut, Brut, Extra–Dry, Dry, Cartizze, Millesimato and now they are experiencing a rosé sparkling wine with Marzemino–Refrontolo grapes, to be launched for spring–summer 2012 in the 750ml to 1500ml formats.
In short, we can say that the company can accommodate any request for those who want to enjoy a typically native to the Treviso area wine, such as Prosecco.
The head office is located in Borso del Grappa, a small village at the foot of Monte Grappa, where for three generations a family nursery has been producing cuttings of Prosecco and not only. The wine cellars for vinification and bottling, instead, are located in the hills of Valdobbiadene and Refrontolo.
Right here in Borso del Grappa the project to insert the Grappa product is being developed, directing exclusively to the single variety Grappa of Prosecco from Glera Superiore DOCG area. We will try to recall ancient traditions that accompanied the life and the economy and the foothills of Grappa.
With these wine Cantine Luvit wants to better represent the long story of Prosecco Veneto, with an original and refined niche product which might be appreciated all over the world.
The simplicity of a great Prosecco Luvit.
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Strada Cisterna-Nettuno, km 13, fraz Le Ferriere 04010
Latina (Latina)
For Antonio Santarelli Casale del Giglio was the family estate, where as a child he spent weekends and tried the first rides with its motorbike. But, when he was twenty–five and he began to work...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
via Renibbio, 1720 fraz. Borgo Vodice 04010
Terracina (Latina)
In the mid–nineteenth century in Pantelleria, Andrea I Pandolfo, great–grandfather of the current owner Gabriele, began to plant vines and to produce wines made from Zibibbo grapes. In 1880,...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
via Campolongo, 9 37022
Fumane (Verona)
I belong to the fifth generation of vinegrowers and winemakers of Valpolicella. Amarone, Recioto, Valpolicella in itself, are known by experts all over the world. This success has established...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
contrada San Domenico 70031
Andria (Barletta-Andria-Trani)
The company of the Earl Spagnoletti Zeuli has ancient roots, which date back to before 1600.In the heart of the countryside surrounding Castel del Monte, the Earl of Andria, with a modern...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
via Monti, 35 20078
San Colombano al Lambro (Milano)
Poderi di San Pietro, built at the seat of the former Agricultural Consortium of San Colombano, in 1998, was taken over by the Neuroniagrari company in 2008. With its 75 hectares of land, of which...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
via Vittoria, 3 20078
San Colombano al Lambro (Milano)
In San Colombano, a cozy hamlet located between low Pavia and the flat of Lodi, where the plain turns into picturesque hills, the Panigada family, in addition to the historic store of salami, has...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
via Mario D'Ambra, 16 80075
Napoli (Napoli)
The founder Francesco D’Ambra, or Don Ciccio, who was born in 1863 in a family of local growers, dedicated himself, since he was very young, the to the trade of Ischia wine, which was...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
via Sartania, 48 80126
Napoli (Napoli)
Cantine Astroni is a winery in Campania, located on the border between Naples and Pozzuoli in the heart of Campi Flegrei on the outer slopes of the crater Astroni – today State Nature Reserve...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
via Spinelli 80010
Quarto (Napoli)
The wine for the Martusciello is a way to experience the territory with passion and dedication. Planting vines, following their growth, harvesting grapes, making wine, getting excited about the...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
via Pallica, 67 89063
Melito di Porto Salvo (Reggio di Calabria)
The Malaspina winery was founded in 1967, when Consolato Malaspina decided to turn his great interest in the wine world in a real passion, committing his future. Since then, he has devoted himself...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
via Militare, 10 Catona 89053
Reggio Calabria (Reggio di Calabria)
Founded in 1957, the Criser Wine House has a long family tradition of love and dedication to the land, to the cult of the vine and wine. A family of Calabrian traditions, deeply rooted in the...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
C.da Lenti 88046
Lamezia Terme (Catanzaro)
The ancient name of Calabria, "Oenotria Tellus", ie the Land of wine, is the calling card of this fascinating territory that has always been dedicated to wine production. At the Statti Farm they...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
viale degli Artigiani 75020
Scanzano Jonico (Matera)
The dedication and love for the land, for tradition, for the cultivation of vines and for wine culture that has enabled, in the heart of Magna Graecia, the Fontanarosa Vini company to arise. It is...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
via Villa Alessandri, 18 50059
Vinci (Firenze)
Situated in a panoramic position in the hills of Petroio, a small locality in the Vinci municipality, the company has been owned by the Pratelli family since 1963. The winery, recently renovated,...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA
via M. Fabbian, 10/b 31030
Borso del Grappa (Treviso)
Story, passion, elegance: these are the key words that distinguish the Cantine Luvit company. For years Luvit has been looking to markets around the world to offer Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore...
CONTATTA & PRENOTA