Veneto has amarone but it also has “regular” Valpolicella, Soave, sparkling prosecco, and many other wines. It also has its own gastronomy, with delicious pasta, risotto, cheeses, hams and much more. It is one of Italy’s largest wine regions, at the foot of the Alps.
Verona is undoubtedly the wine capital of the Veneto. All around are vineyards and wineries. When you fly into the airport of Verona you can see some of the vineyards. If you are lucky with clear weather you will also the Alps, a spectacular display.
Just west of Verona you have the district of Valpolicella, where the famous amarone comes from. A little further away and you get to Bardolino and Lugana. Go east instead from the Verona and you have Soave, Gambellara and finally prosecco country.
If you want to experience some of the best of all of this then you can come on a wine tour and gourmet trip to Veneto with us.
It is just a short taxi (or bus) ride into the city of Verona from airport. It’s a handily sized city for a visitor. Almost everything is within walking distance. But it is not at all a small town; it has a quarter of a million inhabitants. On the contrary, it is a very elegant metropolis. Via Giuseppe Mazzini is lined with elegant boutiques.
At one end, in Piazza Bra, you will find the old Roman arena, known for his operas. At the other end of Via Mazzini you have the Piazza delle Erbe which has a wealth of outdoor cafes. Perfect for a drink before dinner. A few hundred meters into Via Capello, not far away, can see Juliet’s balcony where she stood and pined for Romeo.
For dinner I recommend that you take a walk a few blocks away from the most popular tourist district. You do not have to go far for it to get to a little bit quieter and for the neighbourhood to become much more true Verona. And you certainly do not have to walk far to find a good restaurant. It teems with them here in old Verona.
But back to the wine.
Yes, Veneto best known for its powerful intense amarone wines. Once you come outside the city to the vineyards and visit some winemakers, you will get many examples of that. It’s actually an oddity of a wine. To make it they dry the grapes for a number of weeks before fermenting them. This gives that familiar turbo power to the wine.
But it is a pity that the “regular” wines of Valpolicella have been somewhat overshadowed, behind amarone. If amarone is an impressive wine that goes well with cheeses, heavy meat dishes, or just easy drinking mouth-candy, so “regular” Valpolicella is a perfect food wine. Elegant, good fruit, and with balanced flavours that go well with many different types of food.
This too you will discover when you come with us on some of the winery visits in the wine country on the wine tour to Veneto. We’ve scheduled some delicious lunches “at home” with some of the wine producers. For example, at the Villa della Torre, a Renaissance palace owned by Allegrini, where we invite you to a lovely multi-course lunch, combined with a variety of wines.
I can promise you that there will be a lot of very good food on this trip.
Up here in north-western Italy they also make some of Italy’s best wines. For example at La Cappuccina in Soave. Their soave among the best in the region.
But they also have some other things in store for you, perhaps a little bit more surprising and unexpected wines. They make a very delicious sauvignon blanc. Yes, Sauvignon Blanc that is otherwise mostly known from Sancerre and New Zealand. Or their red wine made the Carmenere grape. A bit of a rarity. Very different from the Chilean carmenère that is much better known.
The family does not only make wine. They have for many years also had a restaurant, one of the best in the region. But when we go there and they welcome us for lunch it will be home-made all the way. Both the aunt and the sister and the brother usually pitch in and help. It will be a long Italian-style lunch!
But there are many other things in Veneto too, both strange and delicious. How about for example the winemaker who makes a sparkling wine that you should open immersed in water (the bottle, not necessarily you). Well, you do get instruction on how to do it. Or the vineyard that once belonged to Dante Alighieri. The medieval palace in the village of Soave that is still today inhabited by a private lady. The vineyard where they happened to find the remains of a Roman temple, stones that are now used as a garden bench. And so on.
There is plenty to discover in Veneto and in Verona.
Read more about the exciting travel program for the wine tour and food tour to Veneto, with Valpolicella, Amarone, Soave and more.
