From the atlas
Azienda Agricola Coali Tenuta Savoia
At A Glance
Producer: Azienda Agricola Coali Tenuta Savoia Location: Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella, Valpolicella Classica, Veneto, Italy Founded: 1997 Grapes: Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Oseleta Range: Valpolicella Classico, Valpolicella Superiore, Ripasso, Amarone della Valpolicella, Recioto della Valpolicella First Bottle: Valpolicella Ripasso
The Producer
The Savoia family founded Coali in 1997 in Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella, a village sitting within the Valpolicella Classica zone, the original and more tightly bounded part of the appellation that predates the wider Valpolicella DOC by decades. They named the estate after the local dialect word for the valley itself: 'coali,' meaning 'lair,' the enclosed hillside terrain between the Sant'Ambrogio hills where their vines grow. The name was already in use by the people who had farmed that ground before them.
Five Savoia siblings run every part of the operation. Marina, with a humanities degree, manages the foreign markets. Silvia, trained in oenology, runs the cellar. Teresa handles administration, Caterina customer service, and Mario general management. No function is contracted out. Every grape is estate-grown, every wine is made from fruit the family farmed.
Place
Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella sits in the western hills of Verona's wine country, inside the Classica sub-zone that the original Valpolicella DOC drew around the historic production villages. Classica carries a different weight from the broader appellation: lower yields, older vine stock, and a tighter connection to the hillside terrain that gave the wine its character before the zone was extended eastward.
The hills here face predominantly southeast and east, lifting the vines above the valley floor. That altitude slows ripening through cooler nights and sharper diurnal swings, preserving the acidity that keeps Valpolicella wines from turning heavy at higher sugar levels. The same conditions make the appassimento process, which concentrates sugar by drying grapes post-harvest, more controlled: fruit that retains firm acid through the growing season holds up better during the weeks or months it spends on drying racks before fermentation.
Soil And Site
The Coali vineyards grow on calcareous-marly soils, the limestone and clay mix that runs through the Valpolicella Classica hills from San Giorgio down to the Coali valley. Calcareous soils drain well and warm quickly in spring, encouraging early root activity, but the clay fraction holds enough moisture to buffer dry periods in summer. In the glass, this soil type tends to produce wines with clear fruit, firm acidity, and tannins that are present without being coarse. The marly component adds a mineral edge that is particularly legible in the Classico and Superiore wines, where the fruit is lighter and the soil character is not buried under the weight of dried-grape concentration.
Story
When the Savoias founded Coali in 1997, Valpolicella was at a complicated point. Amarone had spent the 1980s and early 1990s climbing toward international prestige, and the resulting demand had pulled many producers toward maximum extraction and new oak at the expense of the lighter, fresher styles that had originally defined the zone. A small number of Classica estates held their position: estate fruit, traditional varieties, and the full range from Classico to Recioto made as distinct wines rather than versions of the same concentrated template.
Coali arrived in that context as a family operation committed to the complete range. The decision to make both Amarone and Classico from the same estate fruit establishes a clear hierarchy: each wine is a different expression of the same ground rather than a separate product category. Silvia Savoia's oenology training shapes the cellar side of that range, and Marina's export work has taken the wines beyond the domestic market into foreign distribution. The estate remains small enough to keep all production in family hands.
Vineyards And Cellar
Coali grows all four of the core Valpolicella native varieties: Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, and Oseleta. Corvina forms the backbone of every wine in the range, contributing cherry fruit, deep colour, and firm acidity. Corvinone plays a similar role, adding body and pigment. Rondinella brings aromatic freshness and is particularly useful in the lighter Classico and Superiore wines where floral character is an asset. Oseleta is the smallest proportion in the blend, but its contribution is tannin depth and added colour intensity, qualities that matter most in the Ripasso and Amarone.
The defining technique for the upper wines is appassimento: after harvest, selected grape bunches are laid on wooden racks in ventilated drying lofts and left for weeks or months, losing a substantial proportion of their water weight. The concentration of sugar, flavour compounds, and tannin that results during drying is what separates Amarone from the lighter wines. The dried grapes are then fermented to dryness, which is what distinguishes Amarone from the sweet Recioto, where fermentation is stopped while residual sugar remains. For the Ripasso, fresh Valpolicella wine undergoes a second fermentation over the pomace left from Amarone production, absorbing dried-fruit character and additional tannin without the full weight of a dried-grape wine.
Wines
The Coali range runs across five wines, each at a different point on the dried-grape spectrum.
The Valpolicella Classico is made from fresh grapes, harvested at normal ripeness and vinified without drying. It is the lightest wine in the range: pale ruby in colour, with fresh cherry, a herbal edge, and low tannin. It is built for early drinking.
The Valpolicella Superiore adds a minimum of one year's ageing before release. The extra time rounds the fruit and deepens the colour without changing the essential character of the grape. More body and a longer finish than the Classico, still without the weight of the dried-grape wines.
The Ripasso is the middle wine and the most immediately approachable entry into dried-grape character. Re-fermented over Amarone pomace, it gains body, dried cherry, a note of dark spice, and firmer tannin. It drinks well with a year or two of cellaring but is accessible sooner than the Amarone.
The Amarone della Valpolicella is the flagship of the range. Full dried fruit, dark chocolate, leather, and a sustained finish with alcohol that sits well above the lighter wines. The combination of high alcohol, firm tannin from Oseleta and Corvina, and the concentrated fruit from appassimento gives the wine the capacity to age for a decade or more.
The Recioto della Valpolicella is the sweet version: dried grapes fermented to partial sugar, producing a rich, deep red dessert wine with concentrated cherry, dark fruit, and lower alcohol than Amarone. Where Amarone pushes toward dryness and power, Recioto stays dense and sweet.
In The Glass
The Classico opens with fresh red cherry and a slight herbal note from Rondinella, then moves across the palate with light body and bright acidity. The finish is short and clean. The Superiore adds weight and a touch of dark fruit without losing the freshness.
The Ripasso is where the dried-grape character becomes clearly present. The nose shows dark cherry shifting toward dried fruit, with a note of tobacco and warm spice from the pomace contact. In the mouth, the body is fuller than the Superiore, the tannin more present, and the finish extends into a slightly bitter close typical of Corvina at this concentration level. Acidity keeps it from heaviness.
The Amarone opens slowly: dried cherry, dried fig, dark chocolate, leather, and a mineral thread from the calcareous soil. The tannin is substantial and demands food or time, and the alcohol raises the wine's temperature on the palate. The finish is long, with a persistent bitterness that is characteristic of the variety and a marker of quality rather than a flaw. Recioto by contrast is dense and syrupy at the entry, with concentrated plum and cherry fruit and a clean sweetness balanced by the acidity inherited from the Classica hillside soils.
A Bottle To Understand It
The Valpolicella Ripasso is where the range logic becomes legible. It is made by re-fermenting Valpolicella wine over the pressed skins left from Amarone production, so it carries dried-fruit concentration and added tannin without the full weight, alcohol, or price point of an Amarone. The nose gives dark cherry and dried spice; the palate is medium to full-bodied with firm but not harsh tannin, a warm mid-palate, and enough acidity from the Classica hillside fruit to keep the finish clean. It is an honest introduction to what appassimento does to Valpolicella without requiring the patience or the investment that Amarone demands. Start here to understand the estate and the technique.
Anecdote
When the Savoia family registered their winery in Sant'Ambrogio di Valpolicella in 1997, they needed a name. They chose the word the local people already used for the ground they were farming. 'Coali' is dialect for 'lair,' and it refers specifically to the enclosed valley between the Sant'Ambrogio hills where the family's vineyards sit. The word was not invented for a label. It existed in the everyday speech of the village before the Savoias planted a vine. By taking it as their name, they made a commitment that is difficult to walk back: every bottle carries the name of one valley, and the estate cannot move without the name becoming a lie. That valley, those calcareous-marly hillsides, those four grape varieties grown on that specific terrain, are what the label now asserts. The family understood that before they made a single wine.
Final Word
Coali gives a clear and concrete picture of how Valpolicella Classica works. The Savoia family makes every wine from estate fruit in the original zone, runs the full range from fresh Classico to dried-grape Amarone, and has built a name that is literally anchored to the one valley they farm. The Ripasso is the right first bottle: affordable, immediately expressive of the dried-grape technique, and honest about the soil and varieties behind it.
Sources
- https://www.coali.it/eng/
- https://www.veronawinetop.it/en/ricerca-aziende/azienda-agricola-coali-tenuta-savoia
- https://www.winedering.com/winery-azienda-agricola-coali-tenuta-savoia_d2782