Valpolicella: peace made between Consorzio Vini Valpolicella and Famiglie Storiche

Peace is made, in the name of love for the territory and the common good. “The Consorzio per la Tutela dei Vini Valpolicella (Consortium for the Protection of Valpolicella Wines) and the Famiglie Storiche society communicate that they have settled all pending litigation between them concerning the use of the Docg “Amarone della Valpolicella”. The Consortium and Famiglie Storiche share the objective of acting, each within its own competence, for the development of the Docg “Amarone della Valpolicella” and the other Valpolicella appellations, fostering a climate of fair competition among producers, mutual respect, collaboration and dialogue; reaffirm the importance of defending the Docg “Amarone della Valpolicella” and the other appellations of the territory and their promotion in Italy and abroad, with the aim of fostering their knowledge and consolidating their success, in the interest of the whole community”, states an official note of the two entities, which have thus come to the closure of a multi-year dispute, and which sees a new page opening, with a new harmony, between the Consortium, which protects one of the most important appellations of Italian wine, Valpolicella, and which brings together 2,400 wineries including vintners, winemakers and bottlers on a production territory that stretches over 8,500 hectares of vineyards, in 19 municipalities of the province of Verona, with a wine-related turnover that, in total, is more than 600 million euros, and the “Famiglie Storiche”, 13 family-run wineries that have marked the history of the territory and of Amarone (Allegrini, Begali, Brigaldara, Guerrieri Rizzardi, Masi, Musella, Speri, Tedeschi, Tenuta Sant’Antonio, Tommasi, Torre d’Orti, Venturini and Zenato), which together develop a turnover of 81 million euros, 23% of the total attributable to Amarone della Valpolicella, of which they represent 15% of the product on the market.
“We are happy with the closure of the litigation that lasted since 2015”, Christian Marchesini, president of the Consorzio Vini Valpolicella, told WineNews, “which opens up a more relaxed future for the denomination and the territory. I would like to thank both Pierangelo Tommasi and Alberto Zenato, with whom I started this journey that we have completed, and also the 7 companies of the Consortium that have waived their right to compensation for unfair competition, namely Cantina di Soave, Colognola ai Colli, Sartori Vini, Corte Figareto, Corte Rugolin, Zymè and Roccolo Grassi. Now we want everything to go in the right direction”. And on a possible and hypothetical re-entry of the Famiglie into the Consortium, Marchesini responds, “the Consortium is the institution in the territory, the doors are open to everyone, and being inside means sharing with the Consortium and the denomination choices for the future, which is increasingly complex to manage”.
“As president of the Famiglie Storiche”, Pierangelo Tommasi, at the helm of Tommasi Family Estate, comments to WineNews, “I inherited a work of reunification that Alberto Zenato, a friend and colleague (he leads the Zenato winery with his sister Nadia, ed.), who had already begun with the president of the Consorzio Vini Valpolicella, Christian Marchesini, a constructive dialogue, a path that I had the honor of bringing to a conclusion. The time was ripe to reach this conclusion, perhaps we could have done it sooner, but more than by the will of the parties things were slowed down by bureaucracy. Now a new page opens, the will is to continue their activities in mutual respect and for the good of the denominations. We as an association of Famiglie Storiche will continue to exist, because we have been together for 14 years on the basis of values and ideas that unite us, in addition to having the ownership of the historic Bottega del vino (one of the world temples of good drinking for wine enthusiasts, with its very rich and boundless cellar, ed.), which is very important. The message is that both we and the Consortium all want the good of the appellation and the territory, and we will work for that”.
Thus finds confirmation the news, which, as anticipated by WineNews, was already in the air since Vinitaly 2023, and which opens a new path for the benefit of that Valpolicella which is already one of the most important territories of Italian wine, and which will now be able to work even better on the communication and storytelling of its great wines that now fill the goblets on tables all over the world, and on the “territorial marketing” of a strip of Veneto and of Italy capable of bringing together great wines, beautiful landscapes, history and culture, linked by a red thread that starts from the vineyards supported by the marogne, the dry stone walls that quilt the Valpolicella vineyard countryside, and reaches straight to the heart of Verona, one of the most beautiful and visited cities in Italy.