Celebrating 100 years, thinking about the next 100, between wine and art: the route of Pasqua Vini

Celebrating 100 years with the next 100 in mind, between wine and art, not with a special wine, as is customary, but with book-manifesto, which tells the creative process behind the birth a label that becomes an icon, as well as a work of art, and charts the course for tomorrow: it is “Ode to the Future”, the book wanted by Pasqua Vini - one of the most important wineries in Italy from Veneto, led by the Pasqua family, which, in 2025, celebrates its first century of life - and published by Rizzoli (which, already with Pasqua, has carried out a series of collaborations in New York; the book is available on the publishing house’s online shop), which, in five chapters, with five different approaches, describe the protagonists, that is, five wine projects that Pasqua believes are the highest expression of its vision. The five iconic wines, Famiglia Pasqua, Mai Dire Mai, 11 Minutes, Hey French, Terre di Cariano Cecilia Beretta, chosen by the winery to be the backbone of the entire celebratory program, with their personalities and styles represent its history, its present and its future, whose creative interpretation has been entrusted to the direction of Marco Cisaria (Foll.ia) and the texts of writer, screenwriter and director Filippo Bologna, while the visual part sees the involvement of as many artists from all over the world: Michael Mapes (USA), Sofia Crespo (Portugal), Gaia Alari, Enzo and Giuseppe Ragazzini (Italy). The book, presented at the Pac - Pavilion of Contemporary Art, in Milan, today, is just one of the many initiatives that will link wine and art in the centenary of Easter, which, in this line of patronage, from 2018 to date, has already invested 6 million euros, with major national and international projects, and which follows up on a year, 2024, which, for the Veneto winery, led by the Pasqua family, closed with strong growth (63.5 million euros, +6% on 2023), with an export share that has risen to 90.2%, with wines reaching the 71 markets of the world.
“Producing wine is a beautiful challenge that we have been taking up every day since 1925. Capturing the soul and identity of a land or a grape variety, transforming them into a work of art such as wine”, explains Riccardo Pasqua, managing director Pasqua Vini, “is a great opportunity that is offered to our company every day, and it is our responsibility to seize it. We have always been convinced that there is a deep connection between wine and art, because the creative processes behind them are similar to each other. That’s why Pasqua continues to make its wines dialogue with the interpreters of new forms of expression, through the “Ode to the Future” project: to continue to find inspirations that open new chapters in the history of our winery and to bring the message of each of our wines to the world, with a language accessible to everyone”.
““Ode to the Future” is a book on a head-to-tail basis, designed to be read from both sides, reflecting the vision of wine”, a note explains, “and of the concept of creativity according to Pasqua Vini: an open dialogue that can be approached from multiple perspectives. In the chapter “L’eredità del domani”, dedicated to Famiglia Pasqua, starting from a family epic, Bologna describes not only the evolution of the Pasqua dynasty, but also the transformations of Italian society over the course of a century. Recounting, with his own artistic sensibility, Famiglia Pasqua is Enzo Ragazzini, a pioneer of photography, who first explored parametric image processing: to him the task of creating a bridge between past and present, reworking historical shots of the Pasqua family and moments of production. In “Aspettati l’inatteso”, the protagonist is Mai Dire Mai, the most radical interpretation of Pasqua’s signature Amarone della Valpolicella wine: the wine's intriguing and rocambolic genesis lent itself to a tale with a cinematic flavor, which Bologna translated into a screenplay. Giuseppe Ragazzini is the artist who signs the reinterpretation of Mai Dire Mai: with his ability to combine painting, collage and technology to create movement, the work he conceives is a digital painting focused on the theme of conviviality and human relationships, projected onto a physical canvas to create dialogue between static and dynamic. “Desiderio Liquido” is dedicated to 11 Minutes, a chapter focused on the relationship with time, investigated through the depth of fleeting but meaning-laden moments, such as the 11 minutes of skin contact that define the identity of wine. Michael Mapes is an American artist whose fragmented works arise from the recovery and assembly of small pieces, creating new images. For 11 Minutes, he creates a mosaic where photos, soil samples and fingerprints come together to restore another vision. Moving closer, the viewer discovers each individual detail that makes up the overall iconography. In “Non a caso”, Filippo Bologna takes a metaphorical approach to tell how much the art of blending different vintages, which in Hey French is a distinctive feature, requires balance and refinement. Telling the story of Italy’s first multi-vintage still white through images, Portuguese Sofia Crespo, who specializes in describing the intimate relationships and connections that bind humans and technology. For Hey French she creates an Artificial Intelligence model from a dataset of 1,000 images taken in the vineyard during post-harvest dormancy. “Con affetto tua”, finally comes to life through an imaginary epistolary, an apocryphal text that restores voice to a fascinating and timeless character like Cecilia Beretta. Giving body to Terre di Cariano Amarone della Valpolicella is Italian artist Gaia Alari, whose works enhance storytelling while preserving the traditional animation technique. Inspired by a tableau vivant, the work starts with the intense black color of the bottle, with the label turning into a river, forest, city, culminating in a female figure adorned with symbols, the embodiment of Cecilia Beretta. The animation thus explores the concepts of roots, territory and female identity.
“Pasqua believes that each wine represents the meeting of the present, the past and the future, the result of daily commitment but also of know-how passed down from generation to generation, combined with the winery’s innovative vision. At Pasqua Vini, the genesis of a new wine project comes primarily from an intuition, a vision and an urgency to move towards an unexplored path, which triggers the creative process and finds its grounding in study, research and practice. The same feeling is experienced by the artist when he begins to create his work. It is a path that, in many ways, unites the world of wine with the world of art: in both contexts the desire is to put emotions, connections and visions at the center, where creativity becomes the key to uniqueness. It is this communion of purpose that is the point of contact between Pasqua Vini and the performers to whom, over the years, the winery has given support and voice. Pasqua, through “Ode to the Future”. wants to tell not only its story but above all its future, describing the trajectory to come, investigating the intersection of creativity, art and wine”, the winery further explains.
But “Ode to the Future” will also be an immersive exhibition, in Vinitaly 2025 (April 6-9, Verona), with many appointments at the fair and in the city. A site-specific museum itinerary, housed in the precious setting of Giardino Giusti and divided into several exhibition rooms, will take visitors through the history, present and future, of Pasqua.
Exclusively for the media, a vernissage is scheduled for Friday, April 4 (12 p.m.), when the entire museum complex will be closed and accessible only to journalists. The art exhibition, created by the Foll.ia collective, will unfold in a path involving the entire south wing of Palazzo Giusti. Two rooms will feature an exhibition space dedicated to the five wines featured in “Ode to the Future”, while in the third room visitors will enjoy an immersive experience through a high-tech digital installation in a site-specific Infinity Room. Taking inspiration from the game of the kaleidoscope, the internal structure will be covered with mirrors, on which the works of the different artists will be projected, creating a feeling of total immersion due to the multiplication of images on the surfaces. Umberto Pasqua, president Pasqua Vino, and Riccardo Pasqua, add, “We feel the responsibility of the custody of our past and the urgency to enter the future with strength and as protagonists, laying today the foundations of the goals we aim to achieve in the medium and long term. Our winery has always pushed its gaze beyond convention, and the celebrations we are planning for this century of life are a testament to that. The “Ode to the Future” project represents an ideal bridge between our yesterday-whose roots lie in artisanal knowledge and deep knowledge of terroir-and our tomorrow, in which we want to continue to be a laboratory of experimentation where we can imagine and create. It is in our DNA”.
A centenary to celebrate and celebrate, then, also with the strength of the numbers of a 2024 that saw Pasqua Vini touch a consolidated turnover of 63.5 million euros (up 6% on 2023), and increase its export share (rising from 87.6% to 90.2% over the previous year), presiding over 71 markets in the world.
“It was 2014 when, under the impetus of new governance and the entry into the company of the third Pasqua generation”, a note explains, “the winery launched a profound renewal. Supported by major investments in and out of the vineyard, the growth in sales over the past 10 years has been driven by the success of innovative winemaking projects, with which the winery has imposed itself on the market with a new voice. The company’s renewed momentum - focused on the consolidation of acquired know-how and the premiumization of lines in the portfolio, culminating in the birth of Icons, which today represent Pasqua’s innovative thrust - is rewarded by critics and the market. Thanks to the focus in research and development, the ability to interpret the territory with new stylistic codes and the commitment to adapt its business to individual markets through targeted and vertical strategies, in ten years the winery's turnover has doubled”. In particular, Pasqua Vini goes on to explain, “the company's brilliant performance in the U.S. market shows growth of nearly 40%, thanks in part to new commercial partnerships. The figure is in contrast to the significant decline in consumption of alcoholic beverages overseas (with wine at -7.2% in volume and -6.3% in value), due to a greater orientation toward moderation and growth in the no-alcohol sector. Considering the results achieved by the Italian wine sector in the U.S. market (+5.4% in value over 20232), the robust Pasqua growth performance in the States is better than average industry figures. Still red and white wines (which are the main drivers of Pasqua’s penetration, the winery further explains) are the preferred choice of more mature frequent users, and if in our country terroir and appellation guide the purchase choice, in the U.S. what drives sales is above all the identity of the winery and the grape variety. The profile of the American consumer sees Millennials (40% of the total) increasingly focused on premium wines, tasted mainly outside the home, while Baby Boomers and Gen X prefer consumption at home. Pasqua targeted its strategy in the Americas market by going state by state to identify the wine collections that best matched the target audience’s choices”.
“Celebrating the Centennial with brilliant results in North America makes us particularly proud”, explains Alessandro Pasqua, Pasqua Americas president, “we are working to build a unique and distinctive positioning in the world wine scene, thanks to our ability not only to propose new visions but always faithful to our history, but also to intercept changes in consumer trends. Knowing the needs of the market and the desires of consumers, without intermediaries and through our team present in the markets, has rewarded us and is a determining element of the success of our business strategy”.