About La Collina dei Ciliegi
La Collina dei Ciliegi was founded in 2005 by Massimo Gianolli in the high Valpantena, the valley north of Verona, around the small restored village of Erbin. The estate farms about 58 hectares between 450 and 700 metres, unusually high ground for the area, and has been certified organic since 2023. Altitude sets the style: reds that keep freshness and perfume alongside Veronese depth. Besides the wines, the family runs the Ca' del Moro wine retreat at Erbin, making the property one of the Valpantena's gathering points for food, wine and walking.
Prices are for take away and shipping. The wine bar serves from its own list.
The winery
About La Collina dei Ciliegi
History
La Collina dei Ciliegi, the hill of the cherry trees, is the project of Massimo Gianolli in Erbin, a small village of Cimbrian origin in the Valpantena, north of Verona. The estate describes it as a promise to the valley and to the people of Erbin, who once took in his father Armando and later the young Massimo himself. After years spent working around the world, the family put down roots here again, and the winery is now part of a wider estate with a resort, a restaurant and an events hall.
The aim set at the start was plain and bold: to make the best wine possible from these hills, at a slower pace than the business world the family comes from. In 2017 Gianolli met the French soil scientists Lydia and Claude Bourguignon, and with them and a team of specialists the estate began mapping, analysing and coring its high ground. The first vines of the new plan went in during May 2018.
The land and the vineyards
The vineyards are the highest in the whole Valpantena, inside the Valpolicella DOC area, among cherry orchards, meadows and woods some twenty minutes from the centre of Verona. Up here the grapes ripen as much as a month later than on the valley floor, which the estate credits for the fragrance of its wines. The Alta project covers plots between about 510 and 700 metres: Monte Castello with Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella, Magron with Corvina and Teroldego, Prea with Corvina and Pinot Bianco, and Sponde and Brugolo with Garganega, Pinot Bianco and Chardonnay. Planting is dense, at 7,692 vines per hectare, on steep slopes. DoctorWine puts the vineyard area at 31 hectares.
The wines
The range is split into three collections. Radicata holds the classic wines of the area: the Brut Cà del Moro from Garganega, Camponi Corvina, Formiga Valpolicella Superiore, Maciòn Ripasso Superiore, Amarone and Recioto. Terrena gathers the reserve wines, with the Ciliegio Amarone, the Amarone Riserva named after Armando Gianolli and Peratara, a Valpolicella Superiore first released with the 2019 vintage that matures in wood and amphora of different sizes. Alta is the high vineyard line, so far the Prea white and red, both Verona IGT. The cellar works with concrete, steel, amphorae and wood.
Today
Next to the winery stand the rooms and suites of Cà del Moro, a fine dining restaurant, a hall for meetings and shows, and trails for walking, cycling and riding. The estate offers tastings, sells its Amarone en primeur through a members club and runs its own online shop.
- Area
- Erbin, Grezzana (Verona), Valpantena
- Vineyards (hectares)
- 31 (DoctorWine)
- Main grapes
- Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Garganega, Pinot Bianco, Chardonnay, Teroldego
- Owners
- Massimo Gianolli (Gianolli family)