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| Rosso Fabriseria: a modern wine with an ancient flavour |
The Valpolicella Classica area is renowned and appreciated all over the world for the excellent wines produced with the varieties of grapes typical of the area (Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Molinara, Dindarella, Negrara, Rossignola, Oseleta, Forselina).
The presence of vineyards in this area dates back to ancient times, as we know from evidence gathered over the centuries. Thus the Valpolicella, Recioto and Amarone wines can be considered to be the descendents of the ancient "Rhaetic" wine of Roman origin and the "Acinatico", praised by the Lombards. The "Rhaetic" wine acclaimed by the Latin poets was famous with the Roman Emperors, whereas "Acinatico" excited the interest of the great historian and philosopher Cassiodoro, minister to King Teodorico.
Our firm, which has been operating in the Valpolicella area for five generations, producing wines made with raisined grapes, Amarone and Recioto, on which it has built much of its image, has for some time felt almost hampered by the limitations imposed by the need to necessarily choose between the simplicity of standard Valpolicella, the greater complexity of the "ripasso" Valpolicella wines and Valpolicella Superiore and the greatness of the raisin wines. So much so that last year it decided to follow a new course, intended to reconcile tradition and innovation.
The idea was to maintain the basic system intact, in other words the classic mixture of grapes used for the local wines, in practice working with the Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella grapes, reducing the contribution of Molinara and other lesser grapes from the area to 5% and adding five per cent of Cabernet Sauvignon, foreseen by production regulations, and instead of placing the grapes on matting for several months before making them into wine after raisining, to use them directly, as takes place with standard Valpolicella wine and the great wines of the rest of Italy, but retaining the importance, richness, body and personality typical of Amarone.
Thus the La Fabriseria red wine was created, appearing for the first time in 1997, a table wine and sort of "Super Venetian Red", which takes its name from the parish council of Pedemonte church (known as the ‘fabriseria’). From the beginning of the century, when the reins of the family firm were held by Riccardo senior, father of Renzo and the grandfather of the young oenologist Riccardo, each of those participating at meetings of the parish council used to bring with them the best bottle of wine they had available, for a toast at the end of the meeting. These "privileged" wines were known as the "vin de la fabriseria", and hence the idea of recovering this evocative term for a line of very special wines. This line currently includes a white raisin wine from Garganega and Saorin grapes (the Vin de la Fabriseria), a special Amarone "riserva" and of course the red we have described.
Valpolicella also offers a wealth of monuments, artistic and architectural treasures, true gems of the Verona area and evidence of the passage of ancient civilisations. Our family has been present and working in the Valpolicella area since the second half of the 18th century. This link with our area has encouraged us to rediscover some of these monuments and to propose the portrayal of a different detail on the label of each vintage of the Rosso La Fabriseria, in order to make them known to lovers of good wine.
In this first collection we have proposed the four parish churches in the Valpolicella area:
the parish church of San Martino di Negrar
the parish church of Arbizzano
the parish church of San Giorgio Ingannapoltron
the parish church of San Floriano.
In short, not only wine, but also a journey rediscovering the art of the area, which has led to the realisation of the treatise "Profumi d'antico in Valpolicella: le Pievi". In particular we would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Sandro Scevaroli and Mr PierPaolo Brugnoli for their invaluable contribution towards this project.
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