Italy · Valpolicella & Bardolino (Verona hills)

Bolla

Large Valpolicella producer based in San Pietro in Cariano, credited with bringing Amarone to commercial sale in 1953. The range runs from Valpolicella Classico through ripasso and into full Amarone and reserve tiers, all built on Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella from 188 hectares of Veneto vineyards.

The producer

Bolla is a large commercial wine house in Valpolicella Classica, based in San Pietro in Cariano in the province of Verona. It operates 188 hectares of vineyards across the Veneto and holds what it credibly calls a founding role in Amarone: in 1953, Bolla was the first producer to bottle and sell the wine commercially, turning a wine made only for domestic consumption into a named, purchasable category. The house now sits within Gruppo Italiano Vini, which completed its acquisition in 2006. The cellar in Pedemonte, known as the Cantina del Nonno, holds Slavonian oak barrels that date to the 1883 founding year, sitting alongside 1,700 barriques and 35 large wooden tonneaux added over the following century.

The range is built across four tiers, all rooted in Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella. Valpolicella Classico is the lightest expression, cherry-forward and soft, made for early drinking. Le Poiane Ripasso occupies the middle ground, produced by a second fermentation on Amarone and Recioto pomace that adds body, dried-fruit depth, and spice without the full weight of Amarone. Le Poiane Amarone is the core dried-grape wine: hand-harvested Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella dried in ventilated rooms for at least 100 days, then fermented dry and aged in wood. Le Origini Riserva extends the Amarone character further, with longer wood ageing and more integrated tannin, built for extended cellaring.

Known for

Amarone della Valpolicella; ripasso method

Notable facts

The story

The First Bottle

In 1953, Alberto Bolla decided to bottle Amarone and sell it. The wine had existed in the valleys around Verona for generations, made by farming families from their own Corvina and left to dry through autumn and winter, but it had never left Valpolicella as a commercial product. It was private, local, barely named. Bolla changed that: the grapes were selected by hand, dried for months in ventilated rooms, fermented into a dry, concentrated wine, and then put into a bottle with a label. One of the house's own directors later described what followed in plain terms: Bolla gave dignity to a wine that until then had only been made for family consumption. The category that grew from that decision, Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG, is today one of Italy's most recognised and widely exported red wines.

From the atlas

Bolla

At A Glance

The Producer

Bolla is a large commercial wine house in Valpolicella Classica, based in San Pietro in Cariano in the province of Verona. It operates 188 hectares of vineyards across the Veneto and owns what it credibly calls a founding role in Amarone: in 1953, Bolla was the first producer to bottle and sell the wine commercially, turning a wine made only for domestic consumption into a named, purchasable category.

The house now sits within Gruppo Italiano Vini, which completed its acquisition in 2006. Scale is large and the range is broad, but the Amarone history is real. The cellar in Pedemonte, known as the Cantina del Nonno, holds Slavonian oak barrels that date to the 1883 founding year, sitting alongside 1,700 barriques and 35 large wooden tonneaux added over the following century.

Place

Valpolicella Classica is the western core of the Valpolicella wine zone, the area around the communes of Negrar, Marano, Fumane, Sant'Ambrogio, and San Pietro in Cariano, immediately northwest of Verona. The label "Classica" distinguishes this historic zone from the extended Valpolicella DOC that expanded outward in the 1960s. Grapes grown here carry the Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella mix that underpins every wine in the Valpolicella hierarchy, from fresh Valpolicella Classico through ripasso to Amarone.

The zone is also the legal home of Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG, the dried-grape wine that requires a minimum 100-day appassimento drying period. That requirement is not incidental. It determines how the grapes are harvested, how the cellar is designed, and how the wine tastes: concentrated, full-bodied, dry despite the sugar accumulated through drying, and built for long ageing. Bolla's winery at Pedemonte sits within this Classica heartland, which means both the Amarone and the ripasso wines carry the Classico designation on their labels.

Soil And Site

The 188 hectares spread across the Veneto without publicly detailed microzone information for individual parcels. The broader Valpolicella Classica zone sits on limestone and clay hillsides, with alluvial soils on valley floors. The hill sites, favoured for appassimento-destined fruit, offer better drainage and temperature variation between day and night, conditions that help preserve natural acidity in Corvina while the grapes develop phenolic richness.

Slavonian oak from the Cantina del Nonno anchors the cellar's soil-to-glass chain. Those original barrels, in continuous use since 1883, contribute little extractive oak character but do allow a slow, controlled oxidative exchange during ageing, a method that softens tannin over time without adding wood flavour.

Story

Alberto Bolla opened his business in Soave in 1883, selling local white wine from what was essentially an inn. White wine from Soave, built on Garganega, was the focus. In 1902, he and his brothers opened a restaurant in Venice near the church of San Salvatore, extending the business into hospitality and broadening their understanding of what wine buyers wanted.

The shift to red wine came in 1931. Alberto opened a separate winery in Pedemonte, inside Valpolicella Classica, specifically to produce Corvina-based reds. The zone already had a reputation for Valpolicella, but Amarone at that point had no commercial existence: it was made by farming families for their own tables, a wine too dry and concentrated to fit the regional norm.

In 1953, Bolla changed that. The house bottled Amarone and brought it to market, the first time the wine had left Valpolicella as a commercial product. A director of the house later put it plainly: it was Bolla that gave dignity to this wine, which until then had been made only for family consumption. The category that followed, one of Italy's most recognised red wine styles, grew from that first commercial bottling.

Vineyards And Cellar

For Amarone, the harvest is done entirely by hand. Pickers select clusters carefully in the vineyard before transport to the drying rooms. There the grapes are laid in shallow, ventilated crates and left to dry for a minimum of 100 days. Over that period, water evaporates, sugar concentrates, and the fruit develops the dried, jammy, and spiced character that defines Amarone. The grapes lose roughly 30 to 40 percent of their weight before pressing.

Fermentation on concentrated must of this kind requires long maceration and careful temperature control to convert high sugar into dry wine rather than leaving residual sweetness. The wine then moves into wood. The Cantina del Nonno holds the oldest cellar layer: Slavonian oak barrels from 1883, wide-format and lightly imparting, alongside 1,700 barriques and 35 large tonneaux added across the following decades. The barriques bring more oxygen contact and gentle wood integration for the younger tiers; the large old barrels handle the reserve ageing for Le Origini.

For the ripasso tier, Valpolicella wine undergoes a second fermentation on the wet pomace left after Amarone and Recioto production. This contact lifts the body, deepens the colour toward garnet, and introduces dried-fruit and spice character that the base Valpolicella does not carry.

Wines

Bolla builds its range across four tiers, all rooted in Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella.

Valpolicella Classico is the lightest expression: unappassimento fruit, cherry-forward, soft in tannin and body, made for early drinking.

Le Poiane Valpolicella Ripasso DOC Classico Superiore occupies the middle ground. The 2020 vintage opens deep red tending toward garnet. The nose carries ripe cherries, plums, vanilla, black pepper, and a thread of tobacco. On the palate, the tannins are silky and the acidity is well integrated, giving a freshness that prevents the wine from feeling heavy despite its body. The finish is long, with ripe fruit and sweet spice. The ripasso method does the work here: the pomace contact adds depth and dried-fruit weight without demanding the patience that Amarone requires.

Le Poiane Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG is the core dried-grape wine: dry, full-bodied, and built on at least 100 days of appassimento. Aromas run to cherry, plum, chocolate, tobacco, mint, and dried fruit. The texture is velvety, the tannins absorbed by fruit concentration.

Le Origini Riserva Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG is the reserve tier, aged longer in wood with more integrated tannin and a more developed aromatic range. It is built for extended cellaring and carries the additional complexity that comes from extra time in the Cantina del Nonno.

In The Glass

Across the range, Corvina gives the character that runs from top to bottom: red cherry at the lighter end, moving through dried cherry, plum, and dark spice as the appassimento process concentrates the fruit. The grape is naturally high in acidity, which keeps the wines fresh even at Amarone's weight.

The Ripasso sits where many buyers spend most of their time. The nose rises with ripe cherries and plum, spiced by vanilla and black pepper, then settles into tobacco. In the mouth it fills quickly but keeps moving, the silky tannins and fresh acidity working together against the fruit concentration. The long finish carries ripe fruit and sweet spice without any harshness.

The Amarone is denser from the first pour: dark colour, aromatic depth running from cherry and plum down into chocolate, tobacco, mint, and dried fruit. The velvety texture comes from the concentration achieved through drying and the long wood contact afterward. The tannins are firm but not aggressive. The wine needs time in bottle to loosen, and it will keep and develop for many years.

Le Origini extends this further, the extra wood ageing smoothing the tannin and building aromatic complexity toward dark spice, leather, and dried fruit.

A Bottle To Understand It

Le Poiane Valpolicella Ripasso DOC Classico Superiore is the right first bottle. It is Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella taken through the ripasso method: a second fermentation on Amarone pomace that lifts the body, deepens the fruit, and adds spice without the full weight and price of Amarone. The 2020 opens garnet-edged red, carries ripe cherry, plum, vanilla, black pepper, and tobacco on the nose, and delivers silky tannins and fresh acidity on a long finish. The bottle shows how appassimento and pomace contact are used in Valpolicella wines.

Anecdote

In 1953, Alberto Bolla decided to bottle Amarone and sell it. The wine had existed in the valleys around Verona for generations, made by farming families from their own Corvina and left to dry through autumn and winter, but it had never left Valpolicella as a commercial product. It was private, local, barely named. Bolla changed that: the grapes were selected by hand, dried for months in ventilated rooms, fermented into a dry, concentrated wine, and then put into a bottle with a label. One of the house's own directors later described what followed in plain terms: Bolla gave dignity to a wine that until then had only been made for family consumption. The category that grew from that decision, Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG, is today one of Italy's most recognised and widely exported red wines.

Final Word

Bolla is not a boutique grower and does not present itself as one. It is a large, commercially oriented house with 188 hectares and a broad range, sitting within one of Italy's major wine groups. What it does have is a concrete historical position: the first producer to bring Amarone to market, a cellar that holds barrels from 1883, and a range built coherently around the Valpolicella grape family. For a buyer trying to understand Amarone and the wider Valpolicella hierarchy, Bolla is a clear and honest starting point.

Sources

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