Montresor Lugana Bio

One of Verona’s historic houses, founded by Giacomo Montresor in 1892, with a reputation built on high quality, affordable Valpolicella and Amarone. In recent years the range has grown steadily with vineyards being developed in Friuli and northern Veneto, around Conegliano.

The winery was family-owned until 2018 when Montresor was acquired by Cevico, a co-operative group based in Emilia Romagna, with 2 highly regarded Veneto co-ops as co-investors. Since then a major investment programme has transformed the company – with modern production facilities and a new winemaking team rejuvenating quality across the board, while access to high quality grapes from the Veneto co-owners has enabled some excellent new wines to be developed.

In 2021 Montresor launched its new organic project, a range of 'Montresor Bio' wines. Some of its wines are already bottled in a lighter weight glass bottle (less than 420g) to reduce carbon dioxide emissions during transport, with the added benefit of reducing the amount of glass to be manufactured.

Solar panels are being installed at the winery to provide some of the electricity required in the production process; plus a water purification system to recover and recycle the water used at the winery.

Turbiana,

The Turbiana grapes, (Trebbiano di Lugana, or Verdicchio), are sourced from a vineyard between Sirmione and the resort town of Peschiera del Garda (at the southern tip of Lake Garda), in the tiny region of Lugana - this straddles the border between Lombardy and Veneto. The Guyot-trained vines grow in sandy-clay soils.

After hand-harvesting the grapes are cooled before crushing, then are left in a cold soak in the press for 10 hours. After settling, the juice is fermented at 15° Celsius in stainless steel with selected yeasts. The wine rests on fine lees for 6 months, with occasional batonnage.

This is a delicious and affordable example of one of northern Italy's most appealing dry whites, and organic to boot! Made from the Turbiana grape (aka Trebbiano di Lugana, or Verdicchio) grown on the shores of Lake Garda.

Fragrant aromas of white flower, tropical fruit and wild crushed herbs. The palate is bright and delicate, with gently honeyed notes and characters of honeydew melon, peach and grapefruit. Fresh, zesty acidity and subtle almond hints on the finish.

Perfect with fish dishes - perhaps seafood antipasti!