New barrels at Borgo Maragliano: 3 ceramic-stoneware
Continue readingNew barrels at Borgo Maragliano
September’s events
September’s events: take a look at the upcoming events organised by our associated producers.
TORRE RAONE
“Una passeggiata tra le nuvole” – “A walk in the clouds”
Imagine this:
a gentle Sunday morning, the crisp air and a scenic walk through historic vineyards, surrounded by breathtaking views.
a gentle Sunday morning, the crisp air and a scenic walk through historic vineyards, surrounded by breathtaking views.
“Una passeggiata tra le nuvole” –
“A walk in the clouds”
“A walk in the clouds”
It’s more than a walk; it’s a journey through history and a celebration of nature.
CANTINA PALTRINIERI
Settembre in Cantina Paltrinieri
Tours and tasting during the harvest
Don’t miss this unique lambrusco experience!
Saturday, September 20, 2025 10:30 AM
MONZIO COMPAGNONI
Festival Franciacorta in Cantina
During this event over 60 wineries in the Franciacorta region of Lombardy, Italy, open their doors to the public offering a variety of activities, including tours, tastings, food pairings with local dishes and other events like bike tours and visits to historical sites.
September 10 -21, 2025
CANTINA LASELVA
Ingravel Morellino
A non-competitive cycling event that takes you on a journey through the stunning Maremma region of Tuscany.
Pedal through beautiful vineyards, medieval villages, and scenic “white roads” while enjoying the best of Tuscan wine and local flavors.
September 13-14, 2025 Magliano in Toscana, Italy
CANTINA DI BERTIOLO
Festival Friuli DOC
A festival to celebrate Friulian wine and flavors in the heart of Udine.
3 tastings where Cabert will be among the stars.
Sept 12th – 6PM Giardino del Torso – “Sips of Elegance” Sept 13th – 6PM Piazza S. Giacomo – “Vine, Grape, and Wine” Sept 14th – 4PM Piazza S. Giacomo – “The Intelligence of the Vine” Vintage’s update Zenato
Vintage’s update Zenato:
Valpolicella Superiore 2022 and Ripassa 2021 are available.
Made from vineyards in Valpolicella, this wine has an impressive lingering finish with rich flavor.
The blend is 85% Corvina Veronese, 10% Rondinella, and 5% Corvinone.
On the nose, it delivers delicate hints of almond and violet.
On the palate, it’s dry and smooth with good structure and wonderfully robust notes of cherry and prune.
As soon as the dried grapes for the winery’s Amarone have completed fermentation, a top selection of Valpolicella grapes “passes over” (ripassa) the Amarone pomace, thus resulting in a second brief fermentation.
This helps to obtain higher alcohol content, deeper color, and rich flavor and aroma. Af-ter aging in French tonneaux for 18-20 months, the wine is cellared for another 6 months in bottle before release.
The process makes for a refined and concentrated wine, extremely smooth and vel-vety, with vibrant red fruit aromas.
On the palate, it delivers fruity notes and elegant tannin with hints of chocolate and spice. Ripassa has played a highly important role in the Zenato winery’s evolution over the years.
Zenato. The soul of Lugana and the Heart of Valpolicella.
Two faces: One white, the other red, both emblems of high-quality wines that are born through a visceral passion for the land, through respect for time, through a family tradition that has championed local grape varieties for 60 years.
The Story
Zenato: the story of a family that firmly planted its roots in the land. It was made possible thanks to the passion and entrepreneurial vision of the estate’s founder, Sergio, who managed to fulfill his greatest dream: to create a winery capable of harvesting the fruits of the earth and transform them into emotions with matchless flavor.
Today, more than 60 years later, the results are testament to his extraordinary vision. A wonderful story took shape thanks to his vision and today its star is his family: Wife Carla and children Alberto and Nadia.
Their eyes and their heart continue down the path that Sergio laid out with great clarity as he steadied the course toward quality and love for their land. Over time, that land wasn’t just Lugana but also Valpolicella, with its celebrated red wines and their matchless aromas.
Valpolicella
Taking over the Costalunga estate, in the heart of Valpolicella Classica, Sergio Zenato wanted to measure himself in a new venture, after making the most out of his Lugana vineyards: to make it a model vineyard, beautiful to look at, cared for in every detail, in which to apply modern agronomic techniques and at the same time resume the traditional methods that had defined the Valpolicella landscape.
In a thorough manner, Sergio Zenato drew the distribution on the land of the vines selected for the production of the different wines, going so far as to indicate the direction of the rows so that the vines could receive maximum benefits from the sun. He took special care to make the soil work well to achieve a dry and permeable soil without water retention.
A passionate dedication that we read in the construction of the characteristic dry-stone walls, at first sight elegant support structures, in actual fact an efficient containment system that guarantees the vine the three fundamental elements it needs: the warmth of the sun and the ventilation of air and water thanks to the gaps existing between the stones of the walls and the flaky crumbles of the subsurface.
Lugana
In the flash of an eye and the wonder of Lake Garda is all there: in the beauty of the landscape; in the naturalist, historic, and artistic value of the land; in the mild climate.
The secret of Trebbiano di Lugana, a native grape variety planted on the southern banks of Lake Garda, is hidden in its origins.
With the backdrop of this pristine setting, the gates of the Santa Cristina estate open up on to a broad road with elegant red rose bushes on either side. They are the silent sentinels to whom the Zenato family has entrusted their rows of vines.
All of the incredible things that have happened in this little corner of the world are thanks to the extraordinary intuition and entrepreneurial power of a grape grower who was in love with his land and absolutely convinced of the quality of the wines that only this land could produce. It all began with a white wine, Lugana: Sergio Zenato’s Challenge and Dream since the 1960s.
More info? Check their www
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James Suckling reviews for Klaus Lentsch
James Suckling reviews for Klaus Lentsch
Continue readingZenato’s awards’ update
Zenato‘s awards’ update: Yes, ZENATO DID IT AGAIN!
Nice ratings by James Suckling for theis Amarone Riserva, Amarone Archivio Storico and Lugana Riserva,
Produced only in top vintages, this graceful wine is made from a selection of Corvina and Rondinella grapes grown in the oldest vineyards in the township of Sant’Ambrogio in Valpolicella’s “classic” zone.
Following vinification, it undergoes long-term aging for at least 4 years in Slavonian oak casks.
It represents the very identity of the winery and its legacy throughout the world – a wine that can age and be enjoyed for more than 20 years.
With luminous and dense color, elegant complexity, and a wonderful touch of spice, it’s a wholehearted expression of the land where it is made.
The project: “Amarone Archivio Storico Zenato” was created to celebrate a history of caring, dedication and passion, which led to recognize worldwide the name of Zenato as a synonym of excellence and identity of a unique area: Valpolicella.
The first vintage,(2008) has rested for a decade in large oak barrels.
The milestone of this project that underlines the link to a territory in which we have believed and invested since the beginning.
This is a story of care, dedication and passion.
This Lugana Riserva is the fruit of the Zenato family’s genuine passion and a reflection of their history in the appellation.
The grapes for this wine come from the oldest vines on their Podere Massoni farm. They are harvested slightly late, around mid-October.
Fermentation takes place in oak cask (70%) and stainless steel (30%).
Light brilliant gold in color, this wine delivers intense multi-faceted aromas on the nose, with floral and citrus notes, spices, white plum, and vanilla.
On the palate, it’s rich in flavor, with great depth and balance. An ideal white for aging.
The Story: Zenato is the story of a family that firmly planted its roots in the land. It was made possible thanks to the passion and entrepreneurial vision of the estate’s founder, Sergio, who managed to fulfill his greatest dream: to create a winery capable of harvesting the fruits of the earth and transform them into emotions with matchless flavor.
Today, more than 60 years later, the results are testament to his extraordinary vision. A wonderful story took shape thanks to his vision and today its star is his family: Wife Carla and children Alberto and Nadia.
Their eyes and their heart continue down the path that Sergio laid out with great clarity as he steadied the course toward quality and love for their land. Over time, that land wasn’t just Lugana but also Valpolicella, with its celebrated red wines and their matchless aromas.
Two faces:
One white, the other red, both emblems of high-quality wines that are born through a visceral passion for the land, through respect for time, through a family tradition that has championed local grape varieties for 60 years.
Valpolicella
Taking over the Costalunga estate, in the heart of Valpolicella Classica, Sergio Zenato wanted to measure himself in a new venture, after making the most out of his Lugana vineyards: to make it a model vineyard, beautiful to look at, cared for in every detail, in which to apply modern agronomic techniques and at the same time resume the traditional methods that had defined the Valpolicella landscape.
Lugana
In the flash of an eye and the wonder of Lake Garda is all there: in the beauty of the landscape; in the naturalist, historic, and artistic value of the land; in the mild climate.
The secret of Trebbiano di Lugana, a native grape variety planted on the southern banks of Lake Garda, is hidden in its origins.
With the backdrop of this pristine setting, the gates of the Santa Cristina estate open up on to a broad road with elegant red rose bushes on either side.
More info? Check their www →
I Migliori Vini della Sardegna 2026
Nice ratings for Santadi
Continue readingThe Wine Hunter: awards for Cabert
The Wine Hunter: awards for Cantina di Bertiolo
Continue readingVinous ratings for Masseria Cuturi
Vinous ratings for Masseria Cuturi
Continue readingAwards for Villa di Vetrice
Awards for Villa di Vetrice: their Vin Santo del Chianti Rufina 2005 has been awarded with a Gold Medal, Best of class at the Los Angeles Wine Competition 2025.
Gold Medal
Best of Class
Points
0
Vin Santo del Chianti Rufina
A masterpiece where freshness and elegance are combined with a thick mouthfeel
Fresh, focused and elegantly open with a thick and exquisite mouth-feel.
On the palate it shows harmonious, with oil, toffee, walnut, leather, caramel and dried apricot character. Dried fig and orange peel accents lead to an everlasting finish.
Well-known the perfect combination with cantucci (traditional almond biscuits from Tuscany) but very good also with other (nut based) cakes, liver-pate dishes and complex cheeses. thanks to its multiple layers, long finish, acidity and good structure.
Herebelow the list of all winners. You can find Villa di Vetrice’s in Santo on page 10.
How is the Vin Santo made?
The vinsantaio, where vinsanto is made, hangs full of grape bunches, quite appropriately above the family chapel at Villa Vetrice, as ‘vinsanto or vino santo‘ means ‘holy wine’.
In the Grati family, it is a tradition that began over a hundred years ago, with which the great secret of vinsanto, the madre (mother), is also over a century old.
The madre is an aromatic sediment of inactive fine lees. She, a natural yeast, is ‘eterna’, for ever, because each new production uses some of the old that has multiplied at the end of the process and is then kept again.
Healthy bunches of grapes were picked in mid-September, and hung in the vinsantaio to slowly dry out for over three months.
70% of the grapes are white, Malvasia and Trebbiano, 30% are blue, Sangiovese.
Vinsanto is made only in years with extremely healthy grape material.
Sulfur is lit daily in the vinsantaio to clean the air of insects and unwanted critters. There is also the game of windows, which are open during the day and closed again at night, depending on the weather. The grapes have to dry properly and slowly. As an extra help, only if needed, ventilators can be used.
In December or January, when 30% of the original volume remains, the grapes are pressed. The must is then put into clean caratelli, small wooden barrels, on top of the madre. The caratelli are then sealed with cement, while 25% of the space remains empty.
Fermentation starts slowly in March, while temperatures rise and stops with the heat in summer. For three years in a row. In winter, spontaneous clarification takes place, including the deposition of the madre.
The wine then remains in the unopened caratelli for at least ten years before being bottled.
Villa di Vetrice Vinsanto del Chianti Rùfina DOC comes with 17% alcohol and 100% class.
Discover the other wines of Villa di Vetrice: Chianti Rufina and Chianti Rufina Riserva.
Take a look at their Facebook page
Vinum: awards for Masseria Cuturi
Vinum awards for Masseria Cuturi
Continue reading