Ca’ la Bionda

“We immediately focused on Valpolicella and looked for a different way from drying to bring out the Corvina vine and the territory from which it comes,” explains Alessandro, who returned to run the family’s cellar after an inspiring stint with Paolo de Marchi at Isole e Olena in Tuscany. “We aim for freshness and elegance instead of power and alcohol. I believe that Ca’ la Bionda is the only company that in the last 20 years has reduced the production of Amarone to dedicate entire parcels of vineyards for the production of a great first-choice Valpolicella.”

That would be the single-vineyard Casalvegri, whose 150- to 300-meter-high east-facing calcareous soils yield the finesse and elegance that are essential for the “long living wines” Alessandro crafts, using a high proportion of Corvina along with Corvinone, Rondinella and Molinara. “As a great Burgundy drinker, I always say that Corvina is a wild Pinot Noir,” he says. “It doesn’t have a noble DNA like Pinot Noir, but in this greater rusticity it brings more complex herbal notes that are very interesting and in no way homogenized. This is why I love this vine and I favor its fresh vinification without interference from drying. 

“Corvina behaves differently in various soils. Everything is vinified separately and identified with the name of the vine of origin. The expression I love most about Corvina comes from the calcareous soil. In great vintages,” he adds, “I produce from Ravazzòl—our grand cru—a few bottles of a 100 percent Corvina that resembles a Gevrey.”

The Ravazzòl hill, whose clayey limestone is blanketed with crushed volcanic rock, also furnishes a powerful Amarone that’s distinguished by a thread of acidic freshness—and Nicola’s precision in the steeply pitched vineyards, which are terraced with traditional dry-stone marogne walls that optimize sun exposure, radiate warmth that anticipates budding in springtime, and provide a winter refuge for beneficial insects that prey on pests. (Native-breed Brogna sheep from the Lessinia mountains patrol the organically farmed slopes, chomping weeds.) Restricting their 50- to 70-year-old vines to low yields of 5 to 6 tons per hectare, the brothers think less about drying their grapes than achieving optimal phenolic maturity before they hit the traditional withering racks to shrivel and concentrate.

“Amarone is a great special-occasion wine, but must only be made in particular vineyards where high acidity and low pH can compensate for the sweeter notes that come from the drying technique,” explains Alessandro. So whereas many producers make Amarone from whichever plots happen to do best in a given year, Ca’ la Bionda matches each parcel—and, critically, its pruning regimen—to the intended wine at the outset. Verona’s traditional pergola system “is fundamental where Amarone is produced,” says Alessandro. “The umbrella covering of the leaves with respect to the bunch guarantees greater acidity in the musts, which is extremely important. Amarone is and must be a selection of the best bunches,” he emphasizes. “It is not just a drying technique.”

For their Valpolicella Superiore, meanwhile, the brothers prefer Guyot training. “With only one fruiting head I have less production and a perfect ripening of the bunch,” says Alessandro, who describes himself as a non-interventionist in a cellar devoted to long, cool fermentations and maturations. “We try to accompany the wine like a child to make it grow well and not waste the work done in the vineyard. Everything is fermented with indigenous yeast to maintain the truest character of the Corvina, and the refinement takes place in large oak barrels so as not to spoil the fruit and the sweetness of our vines.”

The results speak for themselves: high-toned aromatics, limestone minerality, and a layered complexity from a region whose potential has been thwarted for too long.

“Our challenge has been and will be to wake the world up to a different Valpolicella—an incredible territory whose differences in soil and altitude make it capable of generating complex and elegant wines without necessarily being the offspring of drying,” says Alessandro. “My vision of Valpolicella is the Burgundy of Italy.”