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Ca' Rugate

A four-generation Tessari family estate in Verona's Valpolicella and Soave Classico zones, producing 750,000 bottles annually from 90 certified organic hectares across three appellations.

The producer

Ca' Rugate farms 90 hectares of certified organic vineyards across Soave Classico, Valpolicella, and Lessini Durello from its base at Montecchia di Crosara in the province of Verona. The Tessari family has worked this territory for four generations, and the first bottles carrying the Ca' Rugate name were released in 1986. Michele Tessari, the fourth generation, joined in the early 2000s and reshaped the estate's scale: a new winery was built, roughly 60 additional hectares were acquired over two decades, and organic certification was extended across all holdings. The estate is a member of the Independent Winegrowers of Soave since 2013.

The red range runs from Rio Albo, a fresh Valpolicella of Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella aged in stainless steel, through Campo Bastiglia Valpolicella Ripasso, where the base wine referments over Amarone pomace to build body and concentration, up to the Amarone della Valpolicella and its single-vineyard cru Punta 470, made from grapes dried for four to five months at 410 to 440 metres. The same three-variety blend threads the range from entry level to the top; the transformation comes entirely from cellar technique.

Known for

Valpolicella range built on certified organic Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella across Ripasso, Amarone, and a single-vineyard cru from high-altitude terraced vineyards.

Notable facts

The story

Two Decades, Sixty Hectares

Michele Tessari joined the family estate in the early 2000s, when Ca' Rugate was still running at the scale his grandfather had established: solid, respected, family-sized. Michele's arrival set off a sequence of decisions that changed the estate's shape entirely. A new winery went up first. Then came the land: between 2002 and 2021, Ca' Rugate acquired approximately 60 additional hectares of vineyard across Valpolicella, Soave Classico, and Lessini Durello. In 2012 the estate bottled its first Punta 470, a single-vineyard Amarone cru from a 6.29-hectare terraced block at 410 to 440 metres, a wine that had not appeared on the estate's list before Michele's generation. Organic certification followed across all 90 hectares. The estate that had first put its name on a bottle in 1986 was producing close to 750,000 bottles annually and farming three appellations from a single organic operation. It was not a slow drift but a deliberate acceleration, compressed into roughly two decades.

Two Decades, Sixty Hectares

Michele Tessari joined the family estate in the early 2000s, when Ca' Rugate was still running at the scale his grandfather had established: solid, respected, family-sized. Michele's arrival set off a sequence of decisions that changed the estate's shape entirely. A new winery went up first. Then came the land: between 2002 and 2021, Ca' Rugate acquired approximately 60 additional hectares of vineyard across Valpolicella, Soave Classico, and Lessini Durello. In 2012 the estate bottled its first Punta 470, a single-vineyard Amarone cru from a 6.29-hectare terraced block at 410 to 440 metres, a wine that had not appeared on the estate's list before Michele's generation. Organic certification followed across all 90 hectares. The estate that had first put its name on a bottle in 1986 was producing close to 750,000 bottles annually and farming three appellations from a single organic operation. It was not a slow drift but a deliberate acceleration, compressed into roughly two decades.

From the atlas

Ca' Rugate

At A Glance

The Producer

Ca' Rugate is a Tessari family estate operating out of Montecchia di Crosara in the province of Verona, with 90 certified organic hectares spread across three appellations: Soave Classico, Valpolicella, and Lessini Durello. The first bottles carrying the Ca' Rugate name were released in 1986, though the Tessaris had grown grapes and sold wine in the area long before that. What the 1986 date marks is a deliberate choice: estate bottling, their name on the label, their name on the line.

Fourth-generation Michele Tessari now leads the estate. His arrival in the early 2000s coincided with a new winery build and a sustained period of vineyard acquisition that added roughly 60 hectares between 2002 and 2021. An operation that had been family-scale became a commercially serious estate with a single-vineyard Amarone cru program and organic certification across all holdings. Since 2013 Ca' Rugate has been a member of the Independent Winegrowers of Soave (F.I.V.I.), placing the estate among growers who bottle from their own vines rather than buying in fruit.

Place

Valpolicella sits in the hills immediately northwest of Verona, a landscape of volcanic basalt, limestone, and clay soils terraced across steep slopes. Soave Classico lies to the east of the city, where volcanic basalt and chalk underlie the vineyards on the hills around the village of Soave. Ca' Rugate works both zones from its base at Montecchia di Crosara, a village at the eastern edge of Valpolicella where the terrain begins to flatten toward the plains.

In Valpolicella, altitude and ventilation shape the grape-drying that produces Ripasso and Amarone. The Punta 470 parcel, Ca' Rugate's single-vineyard Amarone cru, sits at 410 to 440 metres above sea level on terraced slopes, where cooler air and lower humidity during the drying season reduce the risk of unwanted mould and concentrate flavour more slowly. The label on that bottle traces directly to this parcel's position on the hillside.

Soil And Site

The Valpolicella vineyards span basalt and clay soils on terraced hillsides. Ca' Rugate's Campo Lavei parcel, owned since 1999 and bottled as a defined annual Valpolicella Superiore cru from 2004, and the Punta 470 block, in production as a single-vineyard Amarone since 2012, are both named parcels with documented vineyard character. The Soave Classico holdings sit on volcanic basalt soils that give the white wines their mineral acidity and capacity to age.

Story

The Tessari wine story begins with Amedeo, who rented a tavern at Presina near Albaredo d'Adige in the early 1900s and sold the family's wine there before dying in the Spanish flu pandemic of November 1918. His son Fulvio moved the family away from cooperative arrangements in the late 1930s toward independent vineyard ownership in the Rugate hills, planting the estate's roots in the territory that eventually gave Ca' Rugate its name.

The shift to estate bottling came in 1986, when the Ca' Rugate brand first appeared on bottles. The next decisive turn came with Michele Tessari's entry in the early 2000s. The estate built a new winery, began a programme of organic conversion, and grew its vineyard holdings by approximately 60 hectares over two decades. By the time Punta 470 appeared as a named cru in 2012, Ca' Rugate had moved from a modest family operation into an estate producing close to 750,000 bottles annually across three appellations, with organic certification covering every parcel.

Vineyards And Cellar

All 90 hectares are farmed under certified organic viticulture. In the Valpolicella zone, the key cellar decision is how long the grapes are dried before fermentation. For the Amarone, harvested Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella spend four to five months in well-ventilated, humidity-controlled rooms. The slow water loss concentrates sugars, deepens colour, and builds the fruit intensity that defines the style. Fermentation then produces a wine with low residual sugar (3.2 g/L in the Amarone della Valpolicella) despite the concentration, meaning the sweetness reads as ripe fruit rather than obvious residual weight.

The Ripasso method adds a second stage. After Amarone fermentation, the dried grape pomace is used to referment a batch of Valpolicella wine, transferring colour, tannin, and body from the pomace into the lighter base wine. Campo Bastiglia is built this way: deeper than a straight Valpolicella, lighter than Amarone, shaped by both the fresh grape and what the drying process left behind.

Rio Albo, the straightforward Valpolicella, bypasses the drying rooms entirely: seven to ten days of skin contact, stainless steel ageing, and an early release that keeps fruit forward and tannins soft.

Wines

Ca' Rugate's red range builds on a single grape formula: 45% Corvina, 40% Corvinone, 15% Rondinella. The same blend runs from Rio Albo at the entry tier to the Amarone at the top. The transformation between levels comes from what happens in the cellar and how long the grapes spend in the drying rooms, not from a change in variety or sourcing.

Rio Albo is a fresh Valpolicella: ruby in colour, scented with blackberry and cherry, with soft tannins and a drinking window that opens immediately after release. It is the estate's clearest expression of the grape in its unmodified form.

Campo Bastiglia Valpolicella Ripasso carries more weight. Garnet in colour, the wine shows concentrated cherry and spice on the nose, with a full-bodied palate and velvety tannins that arrive from the Ripasso's double fermentation. It is richer than Rio Albo and more approachable than Amarone.

Amarone della Valpolicella is the estate's main Amarone: deep garnet, with concentrated aromas of currants, ripe blueberries, and cherries with spicy oak, and a rich, full-bodied palate with a long finish. The 3.2 g/L residual sugar keeps the wine dry in impression while the four to five months of grape drying account for its density.

Punta 470 is the single-vineyard Amarone cru, produced every year since 2012 from a 6.29-hectare terraced block at 410 to 440 metres. Higher altitude and longer growing conditions on the steep terraced site differentiate it from the estate Amarone.

Campo Lavei is a Valpolicella Superiore from a parcel the Tessaris have owned since 1999, bottled as a defined cru from 2004.

In The Glass

Across the Valpolicella range, the common thread is ripe red and dark fruit, warm tannins, and an underlying softness that comes from the indigenous varieties rather than from heavy extraction. Rio Albo pours ruby, bright with blackberry and sour cherry, the fruit unencumbered by drying or secondary fermentation. The palate is light-bodied and easy, with tannins that fade before the finish.

Campo Bastiglia moves into garnet territory. The Ripasso process builds spice and concentration around the cherry fruit, and the tannins arrive with more presence, soft and velvety rather than grippy. The mid-palate is fuller than Rio Albo's, and the finish carries a dried-fruit warmth that comes from the pomace contact.

The Amarone della Valpolicella opens with currants, blueberries, and dark cherries lifted by spicy oak. In the mouth the wine is dense, the tannins smooth from the extended drying and ageing, the fruit concentrated but not jammy. The 3.2 g/L of residual sugar dissolves into the body rather than standing apart as sweetness. The finish is long, carrying dried fruit and oak spice well past the swallow.

A Bottle To Understand It

Campo Bastiglia Valpolicella Ripasso is the bottle that shows how Ca' Rugate's cellar thinking works. It is made from the same Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella blend as the rest of the red range, but the Ripasso process, passing the fresh wine over pomace from Amarone's dried-grape fermentation, gives Campo Bastiglia a depth and body that the entry Valpolicella cannot reach and an approachability that Amarone does not offer until it has some years in the cellar. Garnet in colour, the wine delivers concentrated cherry and spice on the nose, with a full-bodied palate and tannins that are firm but never angular. Start here: it explains the grape blend, the region's defining technique, and the estate's range logic in a single glass.

Anecdote

Michele Tessari joined the family estate in the early 2000s, when Ca' Rugate was still running at the scale his grandfather had established: solid, well-regarded, family-sized. Michele's arrival triggered a sequence of decisions that changed the estate's shape entirely. A new winery went up. Then came the land: between 2002 and 2021, Ca' Rugate acquired approximately 60 additional hectares of vineyard across Valpolicella, Soave Classico, and Lessini Durello. In 2012 the estate bottled its first Punta 470, a single-vineyard Amarone cru from a 6.29-hectare terraced block at 410 to 440 metres, a wine that had not existed on the estate's list before Michele's generation. Organic certification followed across all 90 hectares. The estate that had released its first bottles in 1986 was now producing close to 750,000 bottles annually and farming three appellations from a single organic operation. It was not a slow drift but a deliberate acceleration, compressed into roughly two decades.

Final Word

Ca' Rugate makes a persuasive argument for Valpolicella as a range of wines rather than a single style. The same three grapes, grown organically on terraced hillsides outside Verona, produce a fresh entry Valpolicella, a richer Ripasso built on Amarone's leftovers, and a full Amarone from grapes dried for four to five months. The addition of a defined single-vineyard cru, Punta 470, gives the range a top tier with a specific address. Campo Bastiglia is where most buyers should begin.

Sources

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