"Back to Classics" Tasting at Gerardo Cesari Winery in Valpolicella

At Gerardo Cesari in Fumane, in the Valpolicella Classica hills north of Verona, one of the estate's hosts, Rachele, Jelena, or Leonardo, will greet you with coffee, water, and biscuits.

The experience begins in the wine shop, where your host uses a map to introduce you to the Valpolicella territory: the hills, the appellations, and the terroir behind the wines you are about to taste.

From there, you will walk through the winemaking area, the ageing cellar, and into the traditional Fruttaio. This is the drying loft where grapes destined for Amarone are laid out to dry naturally before fermentation, a crucial step that defines the region's most famous wine.

The tour concludes back in the wine shop for a private, seated tasting of three wines from the Cesari Classics Collection, served with breadsticks.

You will taste them in order, from freshest to most powerful: Valpolicella Classico DOC 2024, a bright, steel-aged red; Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore DOC 2022, which gains body and depth from a second fermentation on Amarone skins; and finally, the Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG 2021, the region's full-bodied flagship wine, made from grapes dried for three months in the Fruttaio you visited.