Antica Bottega del Vino, temple of Italian wine, and a decade with host Luca Nicolis at the helm

From the super-enthusiast who wants to open a great bottle, perhaps even a rare one and of a very old vintage, to be tasted with a good signature dish, to the simpler person who is looking for a good but disengaged glass, and perhaps with a traditional and popular cicchetto, from those who sit down for business to those who are looking for a simple moment of conviviality, in Verona, there is a place that is more than a must, namely the historic Antica Bottega del Vino. A magical place (which is also one of WineNews’ heart places, ed.), rich in history, with one of the widest and deepest wine lists in Italy and beyond, now owned by the “Famiglie Storiche”, an association that brings together 13 of the most important names in Valpolicella wine, which is celebrating a special anniversary in 2024. “Ten years of national and international success and recognition, synergy with Famiglie Storiche and daily and passionate research. Antica Bottega del Vino celebrates the decade of activity of its director Luca Nicolis, who, since 2014, has led a close-knit team and helped make the Bottega an icon not only for the city of Verona but for all lovers of wine, haute cuisine and the finest hospitality”, a note explains.
“It was early January 2014 and one of the members of Famiglie Storiche called me, and the following week I was already beginning the exciting experience at Antica Bottega del Vino”, Luca Nicolis recalls. “What gratifies me most is the certainty of having created a family together with all the members of the team, with whom there is great complicity: many of them have been there for more than ten years and it is a pleasure to have seen them grow both professionally and personally. I thank Famiglie Storiche for this opportunity: they believed in me and from the very beginning a perfect harmony was created. The certainty is that these ten years are just the starting point of other ambitious projects with Famiglie Storiche, which will broaden the horizons of Antica Bottega del Vino”.
When he arrived at Antica Bottega del Vino, Luca Nicolis had important experience in the world of haute cuisine and hotellerie behind him: from the Veronese Desco at Albereta in Franciacorta next to Gualtiero Marchesi, to the three-starred Arpège in Paris and his Zibaldone in San Giorgio in Salici, where he won a Michelin star. A focus on hospitality and great food and wine that he later brought to Bottega as well.
Today the Bottega has 28 staff members - rising to more than 40 at Vinitaly - who annually welcome more than 120,000 people from all over the world, for more than 16,000 bottles sold. The Bottega also is the only venue in the city that never closes its doors. “The busiest period, but also the one we look forward to the most, is Vinitaly. During the most important days for the world of wine there is a unique energy; this is the meeting and exchange place where everyone loves to be, from the people of Verona to the big national and international names in wine”, Nicolis says. “Luca’s great merit is that he has created harmony both among the staff and with the clientele, renewing and enriching the place and the winery while preserving its identity and flanking the wine with a high-level gastronomic proposal”, explains Sabrina Tedeschi, president of the Antica Bottega del Vino (and at the helm of the Tedeschi winery, ed.). “In recent years, the Bottega has established itself as a welcoming and transversal restaurant, a reference point for wine and food culture that continues to welcome many generations of Veronese and beyond, but also an increasingly young and curious public”.
Thanks to the depth of vintages and the research of its wine list, which now has 4,700 labels and more than 18,000 bottles, in 2023 the Antica Bottega del Vino was awarded, for the 20th consecutive year, with the “Grand Award” by the American magazine “Wine Spectator”, an award given to only 7 establishments in Italy and 93 worldwide, indicated as a reference point for wine lovers. The same magazine ranked Verona’s Bottega del Vino third among 101 reasons to visit Italy. The restaurant was, in addition, awarded by “Falstaff” with the Three Forks and by “The World of Fine Wines” for the best regional wine list in the world and the best sweet wine list in the world.
Established in the 16th century during the Republic of Venice, Antica Bottega del Vino took its current name in 1890 with the Sterzi Brothers, who maintained the charming, warm and distinctive 19th-century style that we still see today. The place thus became one of the landmarks for the late 19th century cultural scene and wine lovers, welcoming poets, musicians, men of letters and artists such as Boccioni to its tables, as well as journalists who took refuge there after a day in the newsroom. In 1957 the restaurant was bought by the Rizzo-Grigolo family and focused mainly on the restaurant business until 1987 when Severino Barzan, who later brought the Bottega model to New York with Giovanni Pascucci his partner, arrived on the scene.
In 2010, the then eleven members of the “Famiglie Storiche” (Allegrini, Begali, Brigaldara, Masi, Musella, Speri, Tedeschi, Tenuta Sant’Antonio, Tommasi, Venturini, Zenato, later joined by Torre d’Orti and Guerrieri Rizzardi, ed.) acquired the Antica Bottega del Vino, safeguarding the winemaking tradition of Verona’s symbolic place.