About Clementi
Clementi is a small family cellar at Gnirega, a hamlet in the hills of Marano di Valpolicella, in the heart of the Classica zone. The house makes six wines from the native varieties Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Molinara and Oseleta, running from Valpolicella Classico through Superiore and Ripasso to Amarone and a passito, all in the quiet, traditional local manner: hand picked fruit, natural yeasts and unhurried aging. It is Valpolicella at a human scale, from a producer who bottles what the hillside gives rather than what the market asks.
Prices are for take away and shipping. The wine bar serves from its own list.
The winery
About Clementi
History
Pietro Clementi is a Verona lawyer, originally from Illasi, who grew interested in wine during the hard years of the Second World War at his grandparents' house. In 1969 he bought a property in the Gnirega quarter of Marano di Valpolicella, a farm that dates to 1600 and covers 20 hectares of vineyard and woodland.
The first wine was made in a small cellar in the house, with help from local growers and a sharecropper nicknamed Musciol, and from Santo Aldrighetti, who had worked with Valpolicella wines for over 30 years. Pietro refined the cellar, began selecting grapes and replanted old vineyards with young vines. His wine became known as the Mayor's Amarone, first poured for friends, family and supporters.
The land and the vineyards
The estate lies in the Classico zone of Valpolicella, in the terraced hills around Marano. The vineyards sit at about 300 to 400 metres, on stone walled terraces known locally as marogne.
The vines are the local varieties: Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Molinara and Oseleta, in proportions that change from wine to wine.
The wines
There are six wines: Valpolicella, Valpolicella Superiore, Valpolicella Ripasso, Amarone della Valpolicella, a passito, and a red from the Verona hills. The Amarone is made from grapes dried in the winery's drying room, and it is also released with older vintages.
Production is small, in the order of 30,000 bottles a year according to a trade listing.
Today
In 2002 the family modernised the winery, adding a drying room for the appassimento, with separate rooms for fermentation and ageing, and began selling in Italy and abroad. The second generation now runs the estate under their father's eye: Maria on administration, Maurizio on marketing and sales and Bernardino on production. The family works with the oenologist Enrico Nicolis.
- Founded
- 1969 (property bought by Pietro Clementi)
- Area
- 20 hectares of vineyard and woodland
- Main grapes
- Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Molinara, Oseleta
- Owners
- Clementi family
- Winemaker
- Bernardino Clementi, with oenologist Enrico Nicolis