Tenuta Sant’Antonio
A different style of Amarone
F our brothers: Armando, Tiziano, Massimo and Paolo Castagnedi. Years of hard work in the viticultural business led them to decide to produce their own wine, becoming winemakers in their own right, at Tenuta Sant’Antonio in the eastern part of Italy’s Valpolicella region. They realised the huge potential of the Monti Garbi area, but it was a great risk. The soil is very calcareous and the grapes are grown at an altitude of 350 metres, a real record for the Valpolicella terroir which mainly extends through the valleys. Here the wide-ranging temperatures which the grapes are exposed to in the last few months of the ripening process undoubtedly give the wine a deeper colour and richer aroma, adding complexity to the end product. This is what gives Amarone – but also Valpolicella and Soave, the other wines made by Tenuta Sant’Antonio – their unusual but unique flavours. Respect for tradition combined with a desire to look to the future, trusting in innovation: this is how the Castagnedi brothers make their wine.
Amarone della Valpolicella Doc
Amarone is a wine of antique lineage, which is highly treasured not least because of the painstaking care and skill that goes into every stage of processing the meticulously selected very high quality grapes. Whoever produces a good Amarone has done so abiding by ancient, strict and clear-cut rules. And if there have been particularly adverse climatic conditions in certain seasons, it may even be decided not to put the product on the market, meaning that a whole year’s work has been in vain. Very little Amarone is produced: two whole vines are needed for just one bottle. The grapes already undergo a severe selection in the vineyard and are harvested late September and October. They are then laid out in fruit stores for three to four months, where they lose more than half their weight and reach the best concentration of sugars. At the end of the raisining or drying period only the grapes that are perfect in all ways are crushed. The cold temperatures of January and February plus a long period of maceration on the skins encourage natural fermentation as tradition dictates. Time, a long period of ageing in small French oak casks and in the bottle do the rest. Every Amarone, however, has its own peculiar qualities as is only right for a great wine. We are proud to offer three: Campo dei Gigli, Selezione Antonio Castagnedi and Lilium Est.
In making their Amarone wines, Tenuta Sant’Antonio favours a very unique style,
different from what’s classically associated with Amarone, aiming for a balance between strength and elegance: the result is a wine that’s neither too sweet nor too alcoholic, but most of all a wine where the fruit expresses itself as fresh, not jammy or similar to compote. That’s why these wines are also interesting to drink during meals; not necessarily with elaborate dishes, even just with a simple steak.
Young winemakers with no history of tradition to follow: this is what the Castagnedi brothers are. And that’s the reason why it was easy for them make their choice: to give a slightly different interpretation of Amarone wine, while also respecting and honouring the rules of the territory.