Ca' Rugate Valpolicella Rio Albo 2014

The viticulture story of the Tessari family began in the early years of the 1900's when Amedeo Tessari, known as "Midéo", rented an osteria in Presina, a small area of Albaredo d'Adige. He started out selling wine from the family's own production. They were difficult years in the Tessari household. The arrival of the First World War set the destiny of many families. Amedeo became sick while serving on the front and returned home to his family in Brognoligo. As destiny would have it, on November 4th, 1918, the day of the armistice, Amedeo, weakened by his illness, passed on.

With courage and sacrifice, Amedeo's wife, Donna Adele raised their children until the 1930's when their son Fulvio, known as «Beo» took over the family's business. Fulvio continued the work that his father laid out, for the most part focusing on the viticulture, purchasing the most prestigious vineyards of the hills of Rugate, making wine and selling their grapes, some to the local cooperative and some kept to make their own production. In 1950, in Brognoligo where intensive farming of the grapes is diffused, Fulvio purchased the first vineyards located in Monte Fiorentine area and focused on planting in this zone which had been overlooked for years.

It is was Fulvio, in the beginning of the 1970's who made the decision to emphasize and improve the quality of the grape, in complete autonomy with respect to the cooperative of the territory. Thus the winery Azienda Agricola Tessari Fulvio was born and Fulvio became the predecessor of what would become Ca'Rugate. In 1978 only 7 hectors (18 acres) were cultivated.

At the end of the 1980's Fulvio's eldest son Amedeo unite their efforts to give life to Ca' Rugate whose name comes from the hills north of Brognoligo and where the house and the vineyards of the Estate are located.

The first bottles that carry the name Ca' Rugate are from the 1986 vintage. These were the years of "fermentation" for the Winery. The cellar in Brognoligo was enlarged and the wines begin to cross national borders. La Garganega variety at that time was the only grape planted and by 1999 covered 16 hectors (40 acres).

In 2001, as Michele was entering the family's business, carrying on as the fourth generation of grape growers, the Tessaris made the decision to build a new, larger and technologically advanced cellar along the road of the Val d'Alpone. An endeavor that was financially challenging but far-seeing. In the same year, the family decided to invest their experience in the Valpolicella area by purchasing the first vineyards in the hilly zone of Montecchia di Crosara.

The new cellar was inaugurated in 2002 which began the dynamic growth of the last ten years of the estate of Ca' Rugate. The arrival of Michele brings a lively entrepreneurial spirit that has permitted its expansion and further affirms the winery both in terms of quality and organization. It is in these last years that more considerable viticulture development has taken place. From 2002 to 2008 around 30 hectors (74 acres) have been purchased in the best areas of Monteforte d'Alpone and Montecchia di Crosara which makes a total of 48 hectors (119 acres).This strategic structural growth is supported by a distribution of the wine that covers 97 provinces of Italy and 23 foreign markets.