From the atlas
Cantina Tonello
At A Glance
- Location: Montorso Vicentino, Chiampo Valley, Veneto
- Founded: 1985 by Antonio Tonello
- Grapes: Durella, Garganega, Chardonnay
- Style: Sparkling, col fondo and traditional method, organic
- Hectares: 12
- Production: Approximately 35,000 bottles per year
- Appellation: IGT Veneto
- First Bottle: Marachelle NV
The Producer
Cantina Tonello sits in Montorso Vicentino, at the base of the Monti Lessini in the Chiampo Valley east of Verona. Antonio Tonello founded the estate formally in 1985, though the family's hold on these volcanic hills goes back to his great-grandfather Giovanni, who worked the land in the 1930s. Antonio took the decision that defined everything that followed: to bottle wine under the family name rather than sell the harvest in bulk. Twelve hectares farmed organically, two named parcels, and a production focused on sparkling wines from Durella, the ancient indigenous vine of the Lessini range. His daughter Diletta, holding a doctorate in Viticultural and Oenological Sciences, joined in 2014 and has carried the estate outward into international markets. In 2022 she was elected President of the Lessini Durello Consorzio, the governing body for the appellation.
This is not Soave. It is not Valpolicella. It is a small organic estate in a corner of the Veneto built around one ancient grape on basalt soils formed fifty million years ago, producing sparkling wines that taste of mineral, salt, and volcanic ground.
Place
The Monti Lessini rise north of Verona into a plateau of dark volcanic rock. The mountains formed approximately 50 million years ago when rising magma broke through the earth and cooled into basalt and tuff. Soils here hold iron and mineral compounds that still mark the wines: the acidity reads as structural and tight rather than fruity, the finish as stony and saline rather than soft. Montorso Vicentino and the Chiampo Valley sit at the foothills of this plateau, cooler and higher than the plains below, where the elevation preserves natural acidity in the grapes through a longer growing season.
The appellation for Marachelle is IGT Veneto rather than Lessini Durello DOC, giving the estate latitude to blend Durella with Chardonnay without restriction.
Soil And Site
The Lessini soils are volcanic in origin, a composition of basalt and tuff laid down over millions of years of geological activity. This volcanic base holds water poorly, pushes roots deep, and delivers wines with a lean mineral profile and a capacity to age. Durella's thick-skinned, high-acid character suits the terrain directly: the grape's natural tartness is amplified and extended by soils that add mineral character rather than softening it. Two named parcels, Chiampo and Agugliana, appear in the estate's vineyard map. Both sit within this volcanic arc above the valley floor.
Story
Antonio Tonello's great-grandfather Giovanni first worked the land around Montorso Vicentino in the 1930s. The family grew grapes through that period without bottling commercially. When Antonio took over in 1985, he chose a different route: dedicate the entire farm to estate production, grow the grapes, make the wine, and put the Tonello name on the label. That founding decision aligned with a farming philosophy he would later formalise as certified organic viticulture. The commitment came from an explicit statement of respect for the volcanic land that had sustained the family across generations.
Diletta joined in 2014 with a doctorate and a commercial focus. She pushed the wines into export markets and took the estate's voice into the appellation governing body. Her election as President of the Lessini Durello Consorzio in 2022 brought a small family producer into formal institutional leadership of one of the Veneto's quieter but increasingly argued appellations. The organic commitment Antonio established has held through the transition.
Vineyards And Cellar
The 12 hectares are farmed organically across the volcanic soils of the Chiampo Valley. Durella is the primary variety, planted for its thick skins, high natural acidity, and strong affinity with the basalt terrain. Garganega grows alongside Durella and contributes to blended wines in the range. The organic approach, applied across the whole estate, avoids synthetic inputs and works with the volcanic soil's natural mineral composition rather than correcting it.
Marachelle, the estate's anchor sparkling wine, undergoes second fermentation in bottle with a minimum of three months in contact with the sediment before release. The wine is not disgorged: the sediment remains in the bottle at the point of sale, placing it within the col fondo tradition. This method, older than the Champagne process and historically common in the Veneto, preserves a faint cloudiness and a yeasty texture alongside the grape's primary fruit character. Alcohol sits at 11%, acidity at 6.00 g/l.
Wines
The range centres on Durella in sparkling form, with Garganega contributing to still and blended wines. Marachelle is the estate's most visible bottle: a non-vintage blend of Durella and Chardonnay, classified IGT Veneto, made col fondo. It carries the grape's full acidity at 11% alcohol, giving a wine that is light, fizzing, and mineral with a round mid-palate from the sediment contact. The col fondo process adds a faint cloudy texture and a subtle breadiness that sits beneath the fruit.
The two named parcels, Chiampo and Agugliana, indicate a terroir-focused direction in the range, though specific bottlings from these parcels are not detailed in the confirmed source material. The estate's broader output includes still wines from Garganega and Durella, though Marachelle and the sparkling range represent the house's clearest statement.
In The Glass
Durella from the Lessini Mountains pours with a pale straw colour and a mousse of fine, persistent bubbles. On the nose, ripe pear, zesty orange, and ginger rise cleanly, the aromatics bright without heaviness. In the mouth, the mousse is lively and the acidity arrives quickly, firm and mineral rather than sharp, backed by the volcanic soil's characteristic stony quality. The mid-palate rounds out, flesh from the Chardonnay and the extended sediment contact softening Durella's angular acidity into something rounder without losing the grape's line. The finish is clean and saline, the salt note a direct consequence of basalt soils rather than a cellar additive. What Durella loses in aromatic generosity compared to Chardonnay or Garganega, it recovers in grip and length.
A Bottle To Understand It
Marachelle NV. This is a Durella and Chardonnay col fondo sparkling wine at 11% alcohol, made in Montorso Vicentino on fifty-million-year-old volcanic soils and released with sediment in the bottle. Pour it gently and expect a faint cloudiness: that cloudiness is the second fermentation working without disgorgement, the natural wine tradition of the Veneto rather than a fault. On the nose, pear, orange, and ginger. In the mouth, firm and mineral with zippy mousse, a round mid-palate, and a clean saline close. The alcohol is low, the acidity is high, and the texture is both lively and quietly fleshy. It is the right first bottle because it carries everything the estate is built on: the grape, the volcanic ground, the organic commitment, and the col fondo method, all in one approachable, food-ready sparkling wine.
Anecdote
In 2022, Diletta Tonello was elected President of the Lessini Durello Consorzio. For a twelve-hectare family estate in the Chiampo Valley, this was an institutional step that would have been difficult to imagine when her father Antonio first decided in 1985 to stop selling the family's harvest in bulk and bottle it under the Tonello name instead. Diletta had joined the estate in 2014, taken her doctorate in Viticultural and Oenological Sciences, and begun pushing the wines into international markets. Eight years later she was at the head of the body that governs the appellation, speaking for Durella and the volcanic Lessini terroir at a level beyond any individual estate. The small farm her great-great-grandfather Giovanni had worked in the 1930s was now, three generations on, setting the agenda for the whole denomination.
Final Word
Cantina Tonello is an organic estate in a corner of the Veneto that most buyers walk past. Durella is not a famous grape and Montorso Vicentino is not a famous address. What the estate offers instead is one ancient indigenous vine on fifty-million-year-old basalt, farmed without synthetic inputs, made into sparkling wine the way the Veneto made it before Champagne methods arrived, and led by a family that has run from founding act to appellation presidency in under forty years. Marachelle is a wine with a concrete physical address and a taste consequence that follows directly from it. Start there.
Sources
- https://www.vinitonello.com/en/family/
- https://www.vinitonello.com/en/
- https://www.vinitonello.com/prodotto/marachelle/
- https://www.vinitonello.com/en/durella-en/
- https://wardmanwines.com/products/cantina-tonello-marachelle-nv