Italy · Valpolicella & Bardolino (Verona hills)

Azienda Agricola Scriani

Family estate in Fumane, Valpolicella Classica, making handcrafted Amarone and Carpanè from hillside Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella parcels.

The producer

Stefano Cottini bought out his father's small vineyard in Fumane in 1998 and began bottling under the Scriani name from the first harvest. The estate sits at the centre of Valpolicella Classica, the denomination's historic western strip, with its principal parcels on the hillsides of Monte S. Urbano and La Costa. Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella grow on slopes above the valley floor, farmed by hand through the season, and the condition of each bunch at harvest determines everything that follows in the drying loft.

Amarone della Valpolicella anchors the range. Grapes dry in the fruit cellar for 90 to 110 days before a 30 to 40 day fermentation on skins without added yeast, then age in 350-litre barriques. Carpanè takes a shorter path: 30 days of drying and 25 days of fermentation in large oak conical vats, producing a red that sits between everyday Valpolicella and the full weight of the flagship. In 2014 Cottini added 15 hectares of morainic hillside near Lake Garda, expanding into Custoza, Lugana and Pinot Grigio and doubling the estate's total hectarage. Amarone remains the wine that has grown fastest across the range.

Known for

Amarone della Valpolicella

Notable facts

The story

The Grape Nobody Knew

When Stefano Cottini started selling Scriani wines in the early 2000s, the question he heard most often was not about the wine but about the grape. Corvina was unknown outside the Veneto, and every conversation started with the name before anything else could be said about the bottle. That meant describing Fumane, the drying lofts, the weeks of fermentation, all as preamble to a variety most people had never seen on a label. He kept making the case through the decade. The name grew slowly familiar in the rooms where he was selling it, and by the time Amarone had become the fastest-growing wine in the Scriani range, Cottini had spent close to ten years selling a grape the broader market had largely passed over.

From the atlas

Azienda Agricola Scriani

At A Glance

Producer: Azienda Agricola Scriani Village: Fumane Appellation: Valpolicella Classica; Amarone della Valpolicella Grapes: Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella Flagship: Amarone della Valpolicella Founded: 1998

The Producer

In 1998, Stefano Cottini bought out his father's small vineyard in Fumane and began making wine under the Scriani name from the first harvest. Fumane sits at the centre of Valpolicella Classica, the historic western arc of the Valpolicella denomination, and it is hillside territory: Monte S. Urbano and La Costa are the two principal parcels, planted to Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella on slopes above the valley floor.

The estate is built around appassimento, the technique of slowly drying harvested grapes in ventilated lofts before fermentation. Scriani applies it at two intensities: a shorter drying cycle for Carpanè, a partially dried red, and a much longer one for Amarone della Valpolicella, the flagship. Amarone has grown faster than any other wine in the range across the past several years and now anchors the estate commercially. In 2014 Cottini added a second territory by acquiring 15 hectares of morainic hillside near Lake Garda, expanding into white wine appellations with no previous connection to Scriani. The estate produces around 110,000 bottles annually across both territories.

Place

Fumane is a village in the Valpolicella Classica zone, the denomination's westernmost and most historically regarded strip. Classica distinguishes itself from the broader Valpolicella Denominazione di Origine Controllata by its hillside positions and older planting history. The classification matters for Amarone because the hillside sites in Classica produce the grape concentration that appassimento drying requires: fruit picked from lower, flatter ground cannot survive three months of drying without losing aromatics rather than gaining them.

Scriani's Valpolicella Classica parcels are on Monte S. Urbano and La Costa, two hillside positions above the Fumane valley. The Lake Garda territory operates on different soils and a different climate register, with the morainic glacial hills producing white varieties suited to the Custoza, Lugana and Pinot Grigio appellations. The two territories share the Scriani label but have separate ranges: one is a hillside red specialist built around appassimento, the other is a white wine expansion on a different landscape entirely.

Soil And Site

The Valpolicella Classica parcels on Monte S. Urbano and La Costa are hillside positions in Fumane. The Lake Garda vineyards sit on morainic soils, the glacially deposited terrain typical of the Garda shoreline hills, which provides good drainage and a different mineral base from the Valpolicella uplands. Specific soil composition data for the Fumane parcels is not recorded in available sources.

Story

Cottini was not inheriting an established estate. He bought out his father's plot, chose a name, and started bottling. The early commercial years were spent explaining Corvina to people who had never encountered it. In the Veneto the grape was known; outside it, the name meant nothing, and every sales conversation required establishing what Corvina was, where Fumane sat, what happened in the drying lofts, and why fermentation ran for weeks rather than days, all before any price or vintage discussion could begin. That education effort continued through most of the following decade.

By the time Amarone had become Scriani's fastest-growing wine, the category itself had developed a wider following, and Cottini's early investment in explaining the grape had become ordinary knowledge for the people he was reaching. In 2014 he made a different kind of decision: rather than deepen investment in Valpolicella Classica alone, he acquired 15 hectares near Lake Garda and began producing white wines from appellations with no previous connection to the estate. The move doubled total hectarage and shifted Scriani from a single-territory red specialist to a two-territory producer with distinct ranges on different soils.

Vineyards And Cellar

Vineyard work across both territories is handmade: no mechanised harvesting, daily attention to the vines through the growing season.

For Carpanè, harvested Corvina grapes go into the fruit cellar for approximately 30 days of natural over-ripening. Fermentation then runs for roughly 25 days in 50-hectolitre oak truncated conical barrels. The large-format vessels moderate extraction and allow gentle oxygenation during a long ferment. Maturation continues in both barriques and larger oak vessels.

For Amarone, Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella grapes dry in the fruit cellar for 90 to 110 days. This extended drying concentrates sugars, deepens colour, and builds the dried-fruit and spice character the appellation is known for. Fermentation runs 30 to 40 days with extended skin contact and no added yeast, drawing on indigenous populations from the fruit. Ageing moves into 350-litre barriques, which impart measured oak character and allow slow oxidative development, followed by bottle rest before release.

Wines

The Valpolicella Classica range is built around two red wines differentiated by how long the grapes spend drying before fermentation.

Carpanè sits in the middle of the range. Corvina grapes dry for 30 days, producing a wine with more body and dried-fruit concentration than a straightforward Valpolicella but without the full weight of Amarone. Ruby in colour, it opens with flowers and fresh berries, and the moderate drying adds density without pushing the wine into the richly extracted territory of the flagship.

Amarone della Valpolicella is the top wine. The full Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella blend dries for 90 to 110 days, ferments for 30 to 40 days on skins without added yeast, and ages in 350-litre barriques. Amarone has a deep ruby red colour tending towards garnet, with dried fruit, jam and cherry aromatics, a palate layered with vanilla, spice and liquorice, and a bitter almond note on the finish that is characteristic of the appellation.

The Lake Garda tier, added in 2014, includes whites from the Custoza, Lugana and Pinot Grigio appellations. These are a separate range with a different soil base and grape palette, positioned as an expansion rather than a continuation of the Valpolicella range.

In The Glass

Carpanè lifts from the glass with flowers and ripe berries, the 30-day drying adding weight without obscuring freshness. In the mouth it is medium-to-full, rounder than a standard Valpolicella, with a dried-fruit mid-palate that carries through to a moderate finish. The oak from the conical fermentation vessels is absorbed rather than forward.

Amarone opens with deep berry fruit, jam and cherry at a concentrated pitch, the aromatics carrying the signature of long appassimento rather than fresh-picked grape. On the palate the wine is full-bodied: vanilla and liquorice run through the mid-palate, spice and bitterness lengthen the finish, and the bitter almond note at the end is clean and precise. The 30 to 40 days of skin contact builds grippy tannin that holds the fruit in place and gives the wine the frame to develop over years in bottle. Acidity balances the dried-fruit concentration and keeps the wine from feeling heavy despite its weight.

A Bottle To Understand It

Amarone della Valpolicella is the bottle to start with. It carries every step of what Scriani does: hillside Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella from Fumane, three months of fruit-cellar drying, a month of skin fermentation without added yeast, and ageing in 350-litre barriques. Deep ruby to garnet, it opens on concentrated jam, dried cherry and berry, and the palate builds through vanilla, liquorice and spice to a finish of bitter almonds and firm tannin. This is Amarone as the appellation intends it: dense, long, and structured for time in the cellar rather than early drinking. Carpanè is the accessible step-in, but Amarone is where the estate's choices in vineyard and cellar are fully visible.

Anecdote

When Stefano Cottini started selling Scriani wines in the early 2000s, the question he heard most often was not about the wine but about the grape. Corvina was unknown outside the Veneto, and every conversation started with the name before anything else could be said about the bottle. That meant describing Fumane, the drying lofts, the weeks of fermentation, all as preamble to a variety most people had never seen on a label. He kept making the case through the decade. The name grew slowly familiar in the rooms where he was selling it, and by the time Amarone had become the fastest-growing wine in the Scriani range, Cottini had spent close to ten years selling a grape the broader market had largely passed over.

Final Word

Scriani is a young estate doing old Valpolicella work: hillside grapes, long appassimento, slow fermentation, and Amarone at the centre of everything. The 2014 Garda expansion shows a willingness to build outward rather than simply repeat, but the core of the estate is Fumane, Corvina and the drying loft, and Amarone is where that commitment is most fully on display.

Sources

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