Terre di Leone
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Terre di Leone vineyard over Marano
- Contact: Federico Pellizzari
- Where: Marano (see map below)
- Website: www.terredileone.it
- N. bottles produced / year: 35,000
- Vineyards: 10 hectares, (24.7 acres)
- Farming: sustainable
- Rooms or B&B: no
Story
The winery is located in the village of Marano di Valpolicella, in the heart of the Classic area of the appellation: the name means “Leone’s lands”, and Leone was Federico’s grandfather. Federico and Chiara share his same passion for the vineyards and Valpolicella, thus the name of their winery is a tribute to his legacy
People
Terre di Leone is currently managed by Federico Pellizzari and his wife Chiara.
Vineyards
The vineyards are handled with care and true respect for the most authentic tradition of Valpolicella, but also with a modern spirit. As Chiara loves to claim, “We are curious people, we love to understand why and what, try and fail, because we feel free to experiment”. Also due to this reason too, in their vineyards you can find many different grapes because Federico and Chiara still are trying to figure out all the potential of this valley. However, for their wines of Valpolicella DOC they use only the traditional blend. The soils have no irrigation system and are made of volcanic basalt turf with some chalky deposits; they also are terraced with the typical dry-stone walls
Winemaking
Federico loves to let his wines to age slowly. All the wines in the range "Terre di Leone" are destemmed (not pressed) and worked exploiting gravity only. The aging occurs in French oak tonneaux and 25 Hl barrels.
- Grape selection table: no
- Fluids processed by gravity: yes
- Drying process: in house
- Type of drying process: thermal and humidity control
- Bottling: in the winery
Wines
The wines are all made exclusively with own grapes. There two range of wines: Terre di Leone and Re Pazzo.
Each wine in the range “Terre di Leone” has three characteristics: it’s made with dried grapes (partially or totally), the winemaking process exploits the gravity force, the aging occurs in oak. On the contrary, the wines in the range “Re Pazzo” (“Mad King”) lack of one of these features; sometimes the wine is made only with fresh grapes, or aged in steel, or the winemaking doesn’t use the gravity.
Furthermore, unlike most of the producers, the "Re Pazzo" Valpolicella Classico - the basic wine - is sold a year later.
The wine “Dedicatum” is the only Rosso Veronese IGP (Indicazione Geografica Protetta, Protected Origin Denomination): here the blend used changes every year but can include approx. 14 different grape varieties that are recommended and authorized by the production rules.
- "Terre di Leone" Valpolicella DOC Classico Superiore
- "Terre di Leone" Valpolicella Ripasso DOC Classico Superiore
- "Terre di Leone" Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG
- "Re Pazzo" Valpolicella Classico Doc
- "Re Pazzo" Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG
- "Dedicatum" IGT Rosso Veronese
- Stock of old vintages: yes
- Selling of old vintages: no
Export
Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Sweden.
The wines we reviewed
The wine
- Valpolicella Classico Superiore DOC 2007
will be at the Terroir Amarone "Rare and Unusual Masterclass: Amarone and Valpolicella Superiore" - Montreux, Switzerland Hotel Suisse Majestic October 30, 2014, hosted by the Digital Wine Communications Conference.