About Monte Del Frà
Monte del Fra is the Bonomo family's winery at Custoza, southwest of Verona, now guided by the third generation. It is best known for white Custoza, yet it holds a serious piece of red wine country too: Tenuta Lena di Mezzo, an 18 hectare estate in the Valpolicella Classica whose fruit is handled at San Pietro in Cariano in a facility with room to dry 300 tonnes of grapes. The top parcels, above all the high Scarnocchio vineyard, feed the estate's Amarone bottlings, while the house style across the range favours precision and drinkability.
Prices are for take away and shipping. The wine bar serves from its own list.
The winery
About Monte Del Frà
History
The land behind Monte del Frà has a long record. Accounts of the estate trace it to the end of the fifteenth century, when friars of the Order of Santa Maria della Scala farmed it, and the name itself recalls them: Frà means friar. A first documented reference is given as 1492.
The modern company grew from the Bonomo family, who date it from 1958, when Massimo Bonomo began an agricultural business at Custoza that also grew peaches, strawberries and wheat. In 1988 his sons Eligio and Claudio turned the estate toward wine alone. The third generation, Marica, Silvia and Massimo Bonomo, now runs it.
The land and the vineyards
The home estate sits at Custoza, near Sommacampagna, on the morainic hills left by the glacier of Lake Garda. From there the family works vineyards in several nearby appellations: Custoza, Lugana, Bardolino and, further north, Valpolicella Classica.
The estate owns about 137 hectares and leases around 68 more. The estate also describes work on sustainability in the vineyards.
The wines
Monte del Frà is best known for its whites from Custoza. The range includes Custoza DOC, the Custoza Superiore Cà del Magro and Bonomo Sexaginta, and a Lugana. On the red side come Bardolino, Valpolicella Ripasso Classico Superiore, Amarone della Valpolicella Classico and the Amarone Riserva Scarnocchio. There is also a Garganega from Colombara.
A second line, Casa Capitei, covers the Valpolicella wines made in the Classica zone, including Lena, a Corvina, a Ripasso and an Amarone.
Today
The cellar at Custoza has a barrel room, a wine shop and an art gallery, and the family offers tastings and tours. Spreading the work over several zones lets the Bonomos present lake whites, Bardolino and Valpolicella reds under one name.
- Founded
- 1958 (land farmed by friars from the late 15th century)
- Area
- Custoza, Sommacampagna (Verona)
- Main grapes
- Garganega, Corvina, Trebbiano di Lugana
- Owners
- Bonomo family