Italy · Soave, Gambellara & Lessini (eastern Verona / western Vicenza)

Azienda Agricola Prá Graziano

Graziano Prà founded his estate in Soave in 1983, becoming the first in his family to bottle wine under the family name. He farms 30 hectares of organic Soave vineyards and a 7-hectare parcel in Valpolicella called La Morandina, planted on ancient seabed chalk at 450 metres, making wines from native grapes without fining or filtration.

The producer

Graziano Prà built his estate around two geologically distinct territories in the Veneto: 30 hectares of Soave vineyards at Monteforte d'Alpone in the east, and a chalky hillside parcel in Valpolicella called La Morandina, purchased and planted in 2001 at 450 metres elevation. He was the first in his family to bottle wine under the Prà name, a decision taken in 1983 that gave shape to the whole operation: native grapes only, hand harvest, natural yeast fermentation, no fining, no filtration across both zones. Organic certification covers the full estate, Valpolicella first, Soave from 2018.

The Soave side produces white wines from Garganega and Trebbiano di Soave, anchored by the Monte Grande cuvée, which spends ten months in Allier oak and delivers a broader, more textured white than tank-raised Soave. The Valpolicella side runs from the Morandina Superiore, a light, direct red of Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella in equal thirds, up to the Amarone, made from the same La Morandina grapes dried for two months on wooden racks before fermentation. The chalk soil at La Morandina, formed from compressed ancient shells, drains fast and forces the vines deep, pulling mineral character into both the lighter Superiore and the concentrated Amarone.

Known for

Organic Soave and Valpolicella from native varieties; Morandina Valpolicella Superiore and Amarone from ancient seabed chalk at 450 metres elevation.

Notable facts

The story

The White Hillside

In 2001, Graziano Prà drove out to a hillside in the Valpolicella zone that no one had planted with wine vines. The elevation was 450 metres, above the traditional Classico floor where most Valpolicella producers worked. The soil was white, visibly so, pale chalk formed from compressed shells that had spent millions of years accumulating on an ancient seabed before the land was lifted and exposed. Prà bought the 7 hectares, named the parcel La Morandina, and planted Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella on ground that had never carried a vine. The chalk drained fast, which forced the young roots deep in search of water, pulling mineral character up through the compressed shells as they descended. The wine that came from those vines was lighter and more mineral than most Valpolicella, and the white soil that had made people wonder why he bought the place was the reason it tasted the way it did.

From the atlas

Azienda Agricola Prá Graziano

At A Glance

The Producer

Graziano Prà founded his estate in 1983 in Monteforte d'Alpone, a village at the eastern edge of the Soave DOC in the Veneto, and became the first member of his family to bottle wine under the Prà name. That original decision gave shape to everything that followed: a single producer working two separate and geologically distinct territories, one for white wines in Soave and one for red wines in Valpolicella, using only native Veneto grapes and making every bottle without fining or filtration.

The estate now holds 30 hectares of Soave vineyards around Monteforte d'Alpone and a 7-hectare parcel in the Valpolicella zone called La Morandina, purchased and planted in 2001 at 450 metres elevation. Both holdings are certified organic. The Soave side produces the estate's main volume, anchored by the Monte Grande cuvée. The Valpolicella side produces the Morandina Superiore and an Amarone from the same chalky hillside.

Place

Soave sits in the eastern Veneto, its best vineyards on basalt and volcanic soils around Soave Classico and the hills of Monteforte d'Alpone. The Garganega grape, the primary variety in Soave, produces whites ranging from light and direct to weighty and age-worthy depending on yield, site, and cellar handling. Monte Grande, one of Prà's Soave parcels, is aged ten months in Allier oak, placing it at the richer end of the range.

La Morandina is geographically separate, further north and west in the Valpolicella zone, 450 metres above the valley floor. That altitude keeps temperatures cooler and ripening slower than the traditional Classico zone below, altering the character of the Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella grown there. The appellation on the red bottles reads Valpolicella Superiore DOC or Amarone della Valpolicella, depending on whether the grapes go directly to fermentation or pass through a two-month drying period on wooden racks.

Soil And Site

The soil at La Morandina is visibly white, and the reason is geological: it is formed from compressed shells, the residue of an ancient seabed that once covered this part of the Veneto. That chalk is dense and draining, which forces the vines to push their roots deeper than they would in richer ground, reaching further into the subsoil to find water and nutrients. As the roots descend through that chalky mass, they absorb a mineral quality that surfaces in the wine as a dry, earthy crispness rather than the riper, fuller character typical of lower-elevation Valpolicella vineyards.

This soil is the physical foundation behind the Morandina wines: the lightness in the Superiore, the earthy finish, the absence of heaviness even in a Corvina-dominant red.

Story

Prà's family had been tied to viticulture before Graziano built the estate, but in 1983 he took a step none of them had taken: he bottled under the family name and sold wine as a producer rather than supplying grapes or bulk wine to others. The estate grew steadily through the 1980s and 1990s on the Soave side, but the decisive expansion came in 2001 when Prà bought La Morandina.

The land was uncultivated for wine when he bought it. At 450 metres, cooler and higher than the classic Valpolicella floor, it required the vine rows to be established from scratch on chalky ground that had not previously been used this way. The decision to plant there was a commitment to a different kind of Valpolicella, lighter and more mineral than the concentrated, alcohol-driven style associated with the zone's most powerful wines. Organic certification followed in both territories, Valpolicella first, then Soave in 2018, running through the full range.

Vineyards And Cellar

Every grape across both territories is harvested by hand. Fermentation runs on natural yeasts only, without inoculation. No fining agents are added. No filtration takes place before bottling. These are choices that leave the wines closer to what the vineyard delivered: a wine made this way carries more textural life but also shows clearly what the fruit was doing in that vintage.

The Morandina Valpolicella Superiore macerates and ferments with its skins for 15 days in stainless steel, then moves to oak casks for malolactic fermentation. The oak contact is not for flavour but for softening: the wine gains a rounded edge through malolactic without picking up significant wood character. The Amarone takes the same La Morandina grapes and routes them through a two-month drying period on wooden racks before fermentation. Drying concentrates sugar, reduces water content, and produces a wine far richer than the Superiore from the same chalky hill. The Monte Grande Soave ages ten months in Allier oak, giving it body and a slightly richer texture than a tank-raised Soave white.

Wines

The range divides cleanly between Soave and Valpolicella. On the Soave side, the 30-hectare holding produces white wines from Garganega and Trebbiano di Soave, with Monte Grande as the estate's flagship white. Ten months of ageing in Allier oak gives it more weight and a rounder mid-palate than lighter Soave styles: there is texture there, a fuller body, and a slow finish.

The Valpolicella side runs from the Morandina Superiore at the lighter end to the Amarone at the concentrated end. The Superiore is a blend of equal thirds: Corvina 30%, Corvinone 30%, Rondinella 30%, fermented with skins for 15 days in stainless steel. It pours transparent ruby, on the lighter side of red, with dark cherry, a whisper of spice, and an earthy note on the finish. It is built to drink rather than age. The Amarone, made from the same parcel, is the opposite argument: dried grapes, concentrated fruit, far higher alcohol. Between the two sits the chalk of La Morandina, which shapes both but differently, adding mineral lift to the Superiore and underlining the dried-fruit depth in the Amarone.

In The Glass

The Morandina Valpolicella Superiore opens with dark cherry and a faint earthy quality, rising from the glass without heaviness. In the mouth it is light to medium in body, with the 15-day skin contact giving grip without hardness. The finish is dry, slightly earthy, and resolves cleanly. There is no obvious oak character. What the chalk does is audible in the finish: a mineral dryness that shortens the aftertaste and keeps the wine feeling bright despite the red grape weight.

The Monte Grande Soave works differently: ten months in Allier oak bring a broader texture, a fuller mid-palate, and a slow finish that lingers. The Garganega underneath keeps acidity present, so the oak does not flatten the wine. It drinks with weight but without heaviness.

The Amarone is dense and concentrated, the dried grapes having pushed both sugar and extract through the fermentation into a wine with body, depth, and a long finish. It is the same chalk hillside, but the drying process changes almost everything in the glass.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Morandina Valpolicella Superiore. It is Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella in equal thirds, grown on ancient seabed chalk at 450 metres, fermented in stainless steel with natural yeasts, and bottled without fining or filtration. The wine is transparent ruby, light in body, and built for a weeknight table rather than a cellar. Dark cherry and earth come first, then a dry, mineral finish that comes directly from that chalky soil. No oak flavour, no extracted weight. It is Prà's farming and soil philosophy in a glass: native grapes, high altitude, nothing added, nothing taken away.

Anecdote

In 2001, Graziano Prà drove out to a hillside in the Valpolicella zone that nobody had thought to plant with wine vines. The elevation was 450 metres, which placed it above the traditional Classico floor where most Valpolicella producers worked. The soil was white, visibly so, a pale chalk formed from compressed shells that had spent millions of years accumulating on an ancient seabed before the land was lifted up and exposed. Prà bought the 7 hectares, named the parcel La Morandina, and started planting Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella on ground that had never carried a vine. The soil's chalk drained fast, which forced the young roots to grow deep searching for water, pulling up mineral character as they descended through the compressed shells. The wine that eventually came from those vines was lighter and more mineral than most Valpolicella, and the white soil that had made people wonder why he bought the place was the reason it tasted the way it did.

Final Word

Prà works two territories in the Veneto with the same set of commitments across both: native grapes, organic farming, hand harvest, natural yeasts, no intervention at bottling. The Soave side anchors the estate's volume; La Morandina provides the more unusual argument, a chalky high-altitude Valpolicella that delivers lighter, more mineral reds than the zone is usually known for. The Morandina Valpolicella Superiore and the Amarone from that same hillside are the bottles that make the clearest case for why the altitude and the ancient seabed soil matter.

Sources

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