Winemaker Notes
Wine Enthusiast Magazine's 2023 Innovator of the Year
Pasqua Vigneti e Cantine was born of the Family’s love for Valpolicella. In its almost centennial existence, the company is now the #1 private producer of wines in Northern Italy. Famiglia Pasqua is locaed in Verona and produces premium and unique Italian wines. In its storied existence, the company has obtained international recognition with its wines, which are synonymous with the great wine-producing tradition of the region. Tradition, innovation, quality and passion are the values handed down from generation to generation by the Pasqua family.
Three generations of people with a Veronese heart and an international soul, sharing the same great passion: viticulture and the production of unique wines from Veneto as well as other great Italian wine regions. Beginning in 1925, the first generation of the Pasqua brothers came to Verona and established a new business devoted to the trade of wines from their homeland, Apulia. Along with wine trade, they decided to start a winery. Within a few years, with the acquisition of new vineyards in the Verona area, the company progressively gained importance and visibility. During the sixties the second generation of the family entered the business, bringing about an opening to export and an orientation toward quality. The addition of an agricultural estate in the eighties and innovative research center for vines, grafting techniques and vineyards. In the mid 2000’s the company made a huge investment with the creation of a new headquarters and manufacturing plant in San Felice, in the heart of the family vineyards.
Now the third generation, composed by Riccardo, Alessandro, Cecilia and Giovanni, started to lead the company, the international market reached new heights, with the foundation of Pasqua USA in New York. The company now sells wine in 40 US States & 60 countries worldwide.
Montepulciano is the second most planted red variety in Italy after Sangiovese, though it is achieves its highest potential in the region of Abruzzo. Consistently enticing and enjoyable, Montepulciano enjoys great popularity throughout central and southern Italy as well. A tiny bit grows with success in California, Argentina and Australia. Somm Secret—Montepulciano is also the name of a village in Tuscany where, confusingly, they don’t grow the Montepulciano grape at all! Sangiovese shines in yet another Tuscan village, here making the reputable wine called Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
A warm, Mediterranean vine-growing paradise, in Abruzzo, the distance from mountains to seaside is relatively short. The Apenniness, which run through the center of Italy, rise up on its western side while the Adriatic Sea defines its eastern border.
Wine composition tends to two varieties: Abruzzo’s red grape, Montepulciano and its white, Trebbiano. Montepulciano d’Abruzzo can come in a quaffable, rustic and fruity style that generally drinks best young. It is also capable of making a more serious style, where oak aging tames its purely wild fruit.
Trebbiano in Abruzzo also comes in a couple of varieties. Trebbiano Toscana makes a simple and fruity white. However when meticulously tended, the specific Trebbiano d’Abruzzo-based white wines can be complex and long-lived.
In the region’s efforts to focus on better sites and lower yields, vine acreage has decreased in recent years while quality has increased.