Wine, agriculture and catering to enhance the territory: “Rete Valpantena” is born

More and more often, with far-sightedness, in large wine territories, to promote themselves and tell about themselves, they focus on synergy with their agricultural, food and catering and hotel excellences. And now one of the noble areas of Veneto wine, Valpantena, does this too, with the initiative of some of the most important entrepreneurial realities in the area. Thus was born “Rete Valpantena”, the network for the enhancement and promotion of agri-food production and wine offer of an identity territory, highly suited to quality in all its expressions (and among the most important “sub-areas” of Valpolicella, a territory in which wine, Amarone in the lead, has a turnover of over 500 million euros, and which will tell in the next few days by a video by WineNews, ed) and that sees collaboration between Agricola Pernigo, Angelini Wines & Estates (that in the territory owns Bertani, one of the historical names of the territory), Costa Arente (Tenute del Leone Alato of the Genagricola Group), La Collina dei Ciliegi and Ca’ del Moro Wine Retreat, Ripa della Volta and the restaurant La Cru with Villa Balis Crema (companies that, together, in 2021, have developed a turnover of over 16 million euros).
“A project, that of the Network, originated from the confrontation of seven visionary entrepreneurs who, in proudly sharing their belonging to Valpantena, now share a medium long-term strategy of action to develop territorial identity projects, able to involve an ever wider audience in Italy and abroad”, explains a note.
“we have set ourselves the ambitious goal of increasing the innovative capacity and competitiveness of Valpantena: a still underestimated kaleidoscope of landscape, production, culture, food and wine and hospitality and on the margins of the Veronese tourist offer - explains Ettore Nicoletto, Ceo Angelini Wine & Estates and at the helm of a new reality “Rete Valpantena” - Just think that, in 2019, and therefore well outside the health emergency, tourism in this valley accounted for only 0.3% of the total recorded in the entire province of Verona. A negligible figure, mainly characterized by proximity arrival during the summer months. We are convinced that a synergistic change is needed, capable of channeling projects of virtuous growth in Valpantena, without affecting the great natural heritage that identifies it. An entrepreneurial mission, therefore, that we intend to realize by bringing other players in the valley to the table, in addition to the administrations involved”.
“Rete Valpantena is an open business aggregation, ready to bring further ambassadors of local excellence into the network - underlines Massimo Gianolli, vice president of the new cooperation reality and president of La Collina dei Ciliegi - the six companies that started the project show that it is possible to overcome both the dimensional limits and those of internal competition. We started a network made up of many voices united by the goal of finally creating the Valpantena brand”.
There are six programmatic points at the basis of the cooperative model of Rete Vlapantena signed by the founding companies: enhancement of territorial identity; identification and promotion of tourist, food and wine routes, excellent products and activity for the free time; creation of synergies and a virtuous circle between all the activities involved in the project; incentives for new entrepreneurial realities to increase the multiplier effect and the protection of the beauty of the valley and its landscape features. The companies of Rete Valpantena are all located between 200 and 600 meters above sea level in the North East of Verona, 17 km from the center.
The seven entrepreneurs of the network are: Andrea Pernigo (Agricola Pernigo); Ettore Nicoletto (Angelini Wines & Estates - Bertani); Igor Boccardo (Costa Arente di Genagricola - Le Tenute del Leone Alato); Massimo Gianolli (La Collina dei Ciliegi e Ca’ del Moro Wine Retreat); Tommaso Zanini e Francesco Montresor (Ripa della Volta) e Diego Zecchini (Ristorante La Cru e Villa Balis Crema). Valpantena (Valley of the Gods) is a pre-alpine alluvial valley which includes the six municipalities of Grezzana, Quinto di Valpantena, Santa Maria in Stelle, Novaglie, Sezzano and Bosco Chiesa Nuova for a total of about 19,000 inhabitants and an area of 30 km. The first signs of the presence of man date back to the Bronze Age (2nd millennium BC). The valley is characterized by a predominantly agricultural economy and by the extraction of gravel and marble.