About Villa della Torre
Villa della Torre is one of the Veneto's great Renaissance houses, built in the sixteenth century at Fumane to designs tied to Giulio Romano and Michele Sanmicheli and laid out like an ancient Roman domus. The Mastella Allegrini family has owned it since 2008, and since 2019 it has bottled wine under its own name within the group led by Marilisa Allegrini, working vineyards in the Valpolicella Classica and in Lugana. Today the villa is also a wine relais with ten rooms, but the cellar's business remains classic Veronese reds from the hills around the house.
Prices are for take away and shipping. The wine bar serves from its own list.
The winery
About Villa della Torre
History
The villa stands in Fumane, in Valpolicella Classica, on a hill called Monte della Fumana where traces of a medieval fortified settlement were found. Locals still call the building el palasso, the palace. The Maffei family lived in the earlier house. In 1504 Anna, the only daughter of Guido Antonio Maffei, married Giulio Della Torre, and the estate passed to the Della Torre family. Giulio, a humanist, and his son Francesco shaped the building much as it looks today in the sixteenth century. Who designed it is still debated: Giulio Romano, the architect of Palazzo Te in Mantua, Michele Sanmicheli and the decorator Giovanni Battista Scultori are all named as influences. The poet Veronica Franco is said to have hosted banquets here for the doges of Venice. Since 2008 the villa has belonged to the Mastella Allegrini family.
The land and the vineyards
The vineyard fills the villa's whole brolo, the walled garden, which still has its original layout inside sixteenth century walls. It sits at 200 to 240 metres, facing east and south east. The soils mix limestone and dolomite with basalt, moraine and alluvial material. Vines are trained on the Guyot system at about 4,500 to 4,800 plants per hectare, and traditional dry stone walls called marogne hold the terraces.
The wines
Villa della Torre has been a winery since 2019, with a project that covers Valpolicella Classica and Lugana. The wines on show are an Amarone della Valpolicella and a Valpolicella Classico Superiore. They are made in a cellar in Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella, where an optical sorter removes leaves and unsuitable berries. Fermentation takes place in stainless steel and wood, and tonneaux and barriques are used for ageing.
Today
The villa is part of the Marilisa Allegrini group, with Poggio al Tesoro in Bolgheri and San Polo in Montalcino. It houses a Wine and Art relais with ten rooms, split between art rooms and wine rooms, and guests can walk the vineyard, visit the Bucintoro and taste the wines of all three estates.
- Founded
- Winery since 2019; villa owned by Allegrini family since 2008
- Owners
- Mastella Allegrini family (Marilisa Allegrini group)