Roberto Mazzi

www.robertomazzi.it

The Mazzi farm has been owned and run by the family since the early 1900s and lies on the hills of Negrar, one of the five towns in the Valpolicella Classico zone. Roberto Mazzi started to produce the farm’s wines in the 1960s, after finishing his agricultural studies. The wine was named Sanperetto after the hill where the vineyard was located. Today, the farm is now run by Roberto’s sons Stefano and Antonio. The estate has 8 hectares of vineyard, which are located in excellent positions on the hills of Calcolare, Castel, Poiega, Sanperetto and Villa. Following Roberto’s tradition, the wines are all named after the particular vineyards from which the grapes were picked, and each of the five vineyards has something different to offer in terms of altitude, exposure and soils. This is particularly evident in the styles of the Castel and the Punta di Villa Amarone, with the Punta di Villa being dryer with smoky notes, and the Castel having richer, raisiny fruit and slightly sweeter notes.

Since taking over management of the farm, Antonio and Stefano have produced the award-winning Poiega, a unique, high quality Valpolicella Classico Superiore, which combines tradition with innovation, as the wine is made using the traditional method of appassimento (air-drying the grapes) that is usually only reserved for Amarone. This process used to be common for Valpolicella, but has been superseded in recent years by the cheaper ripasso method (passing the Valpolicella wine over the skins of the dried Amarone grapes to add flavour and texture). Poiega is made purely from grapes that have been dried for five weeks, giving a unique, rich, pure style of this wine.