About Santa Sofia
Santa Sofia has made wine since 1811 at Pedemonte di San Pietro in Cariano, in cellars built under and around a Palladian villa raised for Marcantonio Serego in 1565. The Begnoni family bought the house in 1967 and still runs it, farming 69 hectares in three areas, Montegradella in the Valpolicella Classica, Briago in the Valpantena and Pozzolengo near Lake Garda, for a production of about half a million bottles. The interpretation is openly classical: measured Valpolicella, patient Amarone and the cru Gioè at the top of the pyramid, wines made to age and to sit at the table.
Prices are for take away and shipping. The wine bar serves from its own list.
The winery
About Santa Sofia
History
Santa Sofia has made wine in Pedemonte, in Valpolicella, since 1811. The villa that gives the winery its name was designed by Andrea Palladio in 1565, when Marcantonio Serego renovated an estate that had belonged to his family since 1552. The villa is among the Palladian villas of the Veneto listed by UNESCO in 1996. By the middle of the 19th century the winery was already praised for its wines.
About fifty years ago the Begnoni family arrived. Giancarlo and Luciano Begnoni gave the winery a stronger identity, worked on high quality labels, looked to international markets and, above all, worked side by side with the vine growers who know the land best.
The land and the vineyards
The company owns part of its vineyards and buys from historic growers for the rest. Most of the vines are on hills, and their age and position let them give fruit even in difficult years of drought or heavy rain.
Briago, in Valpantena, covers 45 hectares at 400 to 490 metres in the southern part of the Monti Lessini, surrounded by woods. Its soils are mainly calcareous, with stone, white marl known as Biancone and red limestone called Rosso Ammonitico Veronese. Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella grow here, and no chemical herbicides are used. Montegradella, in Valpolicella Classica, covers 24 hectares between Fumane and Marano on calcareous, marly soils, again with Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella. Three of those hectares supply the grapes for Gioè, an Amarone della Valpolicella Classico.
The wines
The range is built around Valpolicella and its Amarone. The house says it looks for uniqueness, longevity and elegance, values it ties to the territory. The wines are made in the old Palladian estate, where an ancient cellar and a modern one stand side by side.
Today
Santa Sofia now makes about 650,000 bottles a year from 69 hectares across Valpolicella. In March 2022 the company announced a new winery, an old building to be renovated not far from the historic site, with an estimated investment of 8 million euro. The winery also receives visitors for tastings in the historic cellars.
- Founded
- 1811
- Vineyards (hectares)
- 69 (Briago 45, Montegradella 24)
- Main grapes
- Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella
- Owners
- Begnoni family