Tenuta San Leonardo

About Winery and Wines

More than 1000 years ago, it was a monastery, but for over 3 centuries now San Leonardo has served as the residence of the Marquis Guerrieri Gonzaga family, its proud custodians. Today, the San Leonardo estate is a garden of vineyards and roses, protected by the massive barrier of the Alps, which blunt the force of the cold northern winds, while the valley floor benefits from, and in turn releases, warmth from nearby Lake Garda. The Tenuta remains an ancient world, in which winemaking practices, still uncompromisingly artisanal, yield wines that are true gems of Italy’s wine tradition, marked by freshness, harmony, and an innate elegance.

In the ancient fermentation cellar we use exclusively concrete vats. Here the wines ferment spontaneously without the aid of any technology or of selected yeasts, using very low levels of sulphur, and under the watchful eye of our cellarmen who have been passing down this knowledge for generations. The large underground cellar was built in 2001 paying careful attention to respect the spirit and atmosphere of the ancient monastery of San Leonardo. It can contain up to 1200 barriques used to age our red wines. The striking galleries of the refectory dating back to the 1500s house the Slovenian oak botti which have a capacity of 60 hectolitres.