The art of a modern winemaking estate combines with the best aspects of an ancient and noble tradition.

This land has always been considered ideal for vine growing. The hills to the north of Soave, the location of the estate's vineyards, are of basaltic origin with good texture and a high sand content which favours root expansion and absorption of nutrient elements. An optimum climate, temperate and bountous. And southern exposure with many hours of sunshine ensures the grapes accumulate just the right sugar content.

Garganega vines occupy 70of the vineyards, Trebbiano di Soave 30 These unique vines are essential for producing the typical wines of this zone, Soave and Recioto.

Vine management combines new methods with tried-and-tested local uses. Skilfully balanced according to circumstances so as to increase vine density while decreasing per-hectare yield, to achieve a quality that is worthy of the Balestri Valda name. Our management practices are an expression of our respect for our vineyards and the environment. Pruning, thinning, bunch selection; everything conforms to the idea of living in harmony with the vine. A credo on which the expert vine-grower's work is founded.

We harvest by hand, as tradition commands, when the grapes reach their peak, a fleeting moment that is carefully ascertained by daily testing.

Then the focus of attention moves to the cellar. This is where our wines are created and gently age, where flavour and bouquet reach perfection. The "red" cellar is where ancient culture and modern technique meet and meld. It could not be otherwise because wine needs both if its flavour and perfume are to surpass even our imagination. So next to pneumatic presses that gently press the grapes, and steel fermentation and storage vats, stand fine oak barrels and barriques.

Above all, this is where passion reigns supreme, the passion that transforms the wonderful. Important work of the winemaker into something more: into a sort of pride, a deeply-ingrained feeling of a job well done.

A Family-run wine estate founded on the experience of years devoted to excellency in the vineyard and cellar, managed with passion by GUIDO RIZZOTTO.

The estate's 19 hectares occupy some of the best wine-growing slopes of Soave country, from Mount Carniga to below Castelcerino near Verona. Blending naturally into this landscape of hills and vineyards, they are cared for by people who have a passion for this land and a desire for excellency.

The land's character and its reputation for great wines leave no room for compromise: the family's efforts, together with those of expert agronomists and oenologists, is to achieve the highest quality.

This is a land of art and immortal passions, a land of sublime poetry.

Here, Dante dedicated some of the most famous tercets of his Divine Comedy to Cangrande della Scala, and when, as a guest at Soave Castle, he gazed upon the sundrenched grapes, he wrote: "Behold the sun's heat, which becometh wine / Joined to the juices that from the vine distils..." (Purgatory.XXV, 77-78).

This is how Balestri Valda's finest wines are created: like an art which becomes a vocation.