il Roccolo di Monticelli - 'Monticelli Rosso' - Valpolicella Blend - Veneto, IT - 2021

Rosso from old and young vines of Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Oseleta and Molinara trained with Pergola Trentina on rocky terraces. After forty days on the skins, the wine is pressed off to stainless steel and bottled the following June. Probably the brightest red produced in this area, with delicate notes of geranium rose and white pepper, refreshing acidity and vibrant length.

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Located in the hills of Vallata di Mezzane, near Verona, in Veneto, Silvia has taken over her family’s abandoned vineyards and revived them to produce the natural wines as was done in the past without any additives or invasive farming methods. After studying agricultural science this became her passion, tending to the vineyards planted in the 1960’s and 1970’s to Garganega and Trebbiano di Soave, doing everything from vineyard to cellar in order to know intimately the entire process.

The Garganega and Trebbiano were planted in 1970 in mixed soils with predominante limestone depsoits, while the Corvina as planted more recently in 2017. Silvia works tenaciously to produce the best that the land will give them each year, harvesting only by hand so as not to harm the vines and eschewing any treatments or fertilizers, only minimal amounts of copper and sulphur to protect the vines when needed. They allow the land to speak to them and be reflected in the wine, allowing nature take its course in order to preserve the natural biodiversity of the area which is of utmost importance: cultivating olive trees, bee colonies, allowing local vegetation to grow between the vines, nurture the soils and attract local flora to create a long-lasting and healthy environment.

In the cellar, Silvia uses extended maceration time and leaves her wines unfined and unfiltered, just as her ancestors would have done.
-Savio Soares