Tuesday morning involved a little drive from our hotel just on the outskirts of Verona to a small winery called La Giuva, which lies on top of a hill, 400m up in the Squaranto valley.

La Giuva

The winery is owned by Alberto Malesani, a former manager of Fiorentina and Parma, the latter with whom he won the UEFA cup in 1999. This is a 10 ha estate with only 5 ha of land under vine, these being at elevations between 300 - 400m. The view from the winery is stunning. They concentrate on Valpolicella Superiore and Amarone, both of which are very small production. The Valpolicella Superiore is made by blending 50% wine from air dried grapes and 50% wine from fresh Valpolicella grapes vilified. The Amarone is stainless steel fermented using 3 month dried grapes then allowing malolactic conversion and ageing in new oak barrels for 2 years. This is a winery that is going places and could become very sought after in the coming years.

The Wines on Show

Valpolicella Superiore Rich and intense notes of ripe and sweet red cherries. A prune-like undertone gives a deliciousness not seen in many super-Valpolicellas Amarone A stunning wine. Super rich and complex with 17% alcohol, but so smooth and not "spirity" as you would imagine with such high alcohol. Layers of figs, prunes, bittersweet cherries and spicy oak. Watch this space for this wine. After La Giuva we had an hour's drive leaving the wine region of Veneto behind and crossing the border into Lombardia and the province of Lugana, bordering Lake Garda. We were there for a winery visit to Ca dei Frati, whose wines Whitmore & White have stocked for quite some time and are some of our favourite wines! See my next post for my visit to Ca dei Frati! Graham