About Benedetti La Villa
The Benedetti family has grown vines at La Villa in Negrar since the nineteenth century, and the estate is now run by the brothers Simone and Matteo, who learned the work from their father Adriano and their grandfather before him. The property carries an unusual layer of history: in 1887 a Roman villa of the second and third century was found seven metres beneath the fields, and its mosaic floors, partly displayed in Verona's museum of ancient art, gave the family's Mosaico line its name. The cellar pairs traditional drying lofts and long wood aging with modern equipment.
Prices are for take away and shipping. The wine bar serves from its own list.
The winery
About Benedetti La Villa
History
The Benedetti family has grown vines in Negrar for four generations. Domenico Benedetti came to these hills at the end of the 1800s to work the vines. Giuseppe was the first of the family to make wine on the hill, followed by his son Adriano, and today by Adriano's sons Simone and Matteo, who run the all family estate.
The name La Villa comes from a Roman villa of the third and fourth centuries, found in 1887 under the vineyards. The black charioteer on the winery's logo is a figure from the villa's mosaic floors. In 2021 the family signed a partnership with the archaeology and landscape authority for the provinces of Verona, Rovigo and Vicenza to look after the site.
The land and the vineyards
The vineyards are in the commune of Negrar, in the middle of Valpolicella Classica, on a hilltop ringed by terraces and dry stone walls called marogne, which UNESCO has recognised as a cultural treasure. The soil is limestone, thin and stony, and the family farms without chemical weedkillers. The two farms behind the best wines are La Permuta and Le Cortesele.
The wines
La Permuta gives its name to an Amarone and a Recioto. The name recalls the grapes that local growers once swapped, the ones that went into the best wines. Le Cortesele is a Ripasso. The range covers every style of Valpolicella: Amarone, Recioto, Ripasso, Superiore and Classico, plus a rosato, a red and a white passito, and grappas of Amarone and Recioto. Two other lines exist: Mosaici, with the Amarone dedicated to Adriano, and Copernicum.
Today
Simone and Matteo have pressed for the Roman site to be excavated and protected. The winery takes visitors for tastings.
- Founded
- Family winegrowing since the late 1800s
- Area
- Negrar, Valpolicella Classica (Verona)
- Owners
- Benedetti family (Simone and Matteo)