From the atlas
Casa Vinicola Sartori
At A Glance
Producer: Casa Vinicola Sartori (Sartori di Verona) Location: Negrar di Valpolicella, Verona, Veneto Founded: 1898 Appellation: Valpolicella Classica, Amarone della Valpolicella Signature grape: Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella Signature wine: Amarone della Valpolicella First Amarone: 1961
The Producer
Casa Vinicola Sartori has been in Negrar, one of the five valleys that make up Valpolicella Classica, since Pietro Sartori bought his first barrel in 1898. The family acquired Villa Maria in 1924, a property that already had a vineyard inside its grounds and a dedicated section of drying racks for the appassimento process that defines the region's most serious wines. That infrastructure was not added later as the winery grew; it was already there when they arrived, which says something about how deeply the drying tradition was embedded in Negrar before Amarone had its own appellation name.
Sartori bottled its first Amarone in 1961 and began exporting in 1965, both well before the style gained its current international profile or its DOCG classification. The Cangrande della Scala label, which features the medieval lord of Verona whose equestrian statue stands in the city, was registered in 1934 by Regolo Sartori. It remains part of the Sartori range today. The producer now operates within Collis Heritage SpA, a joint venture formed from the merger of Casa Vinicola Sartori 1898 and sparkling-wine producer Cantine Riondo, majority-owned by Collis Veneto Wine Group, with Villa Maria designated as the group's headquarters.
Place
Negrar sits in the western part of Valpolicella Classica, the historic core of the denomination and the area that runs through five valleys carved into the limestone foothills north of Verona. The Classica designation matters on the label: it signals that the grapes come from the original, geographically tighter zone rather than the broader Valpolicella DOC that extends east toward Soave and south toward the plain.
Sartori's territory spans both Valpolicella Classica and the wider Verona province, reaching west toward Lake Garda and east toward the volcanic soils near Soave. The breadth of that geography shows up in the range: the producer makes wines across multiple Verona appellations, from light Valpolicella through Ripasso to Amarone. In Valpolicella, altitude and the limestone and clay soils of the valley slopes shape the character of Corvina, keeping acidity intact through the long growing season and allowing the grapes to be picked at full ripeness without losing the firm character that drying will later concentrate.
Soil And Site
The Valpolicella Classica valleys run roughly north to south, channelling cool air from the mountains into the vineyards. Soils in Negrar are predominantly clay and limestone, with the limestone giving good drainage and contributing to the firm acid backbone in Corvina. For Amarone production, grapes that go onto the drying racks in autumn need both ripeness and acidity to survive several months of controlled dehydration without tipping into vinegar or losing their fruit character. The valley floor and lower slopes produce the fruit for the Valpolicella and Ripasso range; the higher parcels, with better drainage and greater temperature variation, carry more of the Amarone-destined fruit.
Story
Pietro Sartori started in 1898 with a barrel. Twenty-six years later, the family bought Villa Maria, and with it a working arele drying rack that placed them directly inside the appassimento tradition rather than at its margins. Regolo Sartori registered the Cangrande brand in 1934, anchoring the producer's name to a specific Veronese historical figure at a time when wine-region branding was relatively uncommon.
The decision to bottle Amarone in 1961 was made before the style existed as a classified denomination. Amarone received its DOC recognition in 1968 and its DOCG only in 2010. Sartori was already bottling and, by 1965, already shipping it abroad. That sequence matters: the producer did not enter Amarone when the category became fashionable; it helped define what the category looked like on export markets before those markets had a full vocabulary for it.
More recently, the merger that created Collis Heritage SpA absorbed the Sartori operation into a larger Veneto group alongside Cantine Riondo, a Prosecco and sparkling wine producer. The Sartori family name remains active in the business, with Andrea Sartori identified as the family's continuing presence. Villa Maria, purchased in 1924 with its arele racks, is now the headquarters of the merged group.
Vineyards And Cellar
The central technique in the Sartori cellar is appassimento: after harvest, the grapes are laid on arele racks and left to dry for several months, during which they lose a substantial portion of their water weight. The concentration that results pushes sugar, flavour and potential alcohol well beyond what fresh-pressed fruit from the same parcels would give. Villa Maria has been the site of this drying since at least 1924.
For Amarone, the dried grapes are pressed and fermented to near dryness, though residual sugar levels vary by market and vintage. The wine then ages in oak, with the full cycle from harvest to release typically spanning several years. The oak adds some spice, but the dominant character in the glass comes from the fruit itself after drying: concentrated dark cherry, dried herbs, chocolate and a warmth in the body that reflects the elevated alcohol the appassimento process produces.
Ripasso is made by refermentation of young Valpolicella on the pressed skins remaining from Amarone production, picking up colour, body and some of the dried-fruit richness from the spent Amarone marc.
Wines
The Sartori range runs from entry-level Valpolicella and Soave through Valpolicella Ripasso to Amarone della Valpolicella. The Valpolicella is light-bodied and fruit-forward, built primarily from Corvina with its characteristic sour-cherry freshness and relatively low tannin. It is made for early drinking and carries the clean acidity that the Classica valleys produce.
The Ripasso sits in the middle of the range in terms of body and richness: fuller than the base Valpolicella, with more dried-fruit character and firmer tannin, but lighter than the Amarone. It is the everyday expression of the appassimento tradition.
The Amarone is where the drying technique becomes fully legible in the glass. The 2020 vintage, as declared for the Swedish market, is built on 50% Corvina, 30% Corvinone, 15% Rondinella and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, though the fifth-grape component varies by market and bottling. Body is full, tannin is present, alcohol is elevated, and the flavour register runs from dark cherry and plum through dried fig and chocolate to a warm, slightly bitter finish. The Cangrande della Scala label sits within the range as a branded tier.
The range also extends into other Verona province denominations, including Soave, which is made from Garganega grown east of the city on volcanic soils quite different from the limestone valleys of Valpolicella.
In The Glass
The Valpolicella opens with sour cherry and a hint of almond, common to Corvina grown at altitude on limestone. Acidity is bright, the body is light, and the finish is short and clean.
The Ripasso carries more weight: darker fruit, a drier mid-palate from the refermentation on Amarone skins, and firmer tannin that leaves a slightly grippy finish. The fruit character shifts from fresh cherry toward dried fruit and tobacco.
Amarone is a different register entirely. The nose gives up concentrated dried cherry, dark chocolate and spice almost immediately. In the mouth the body is full and warm, the tannin firm without sharpness, and the finish long with a slight bitterness that the Corvina grape carries naturally and the drying process amplifies. The acidity, preserved by the grape variety and the altitude of the vineyard sites, keeps the wine from feeling heavy despite the concentration. At its core, Amarone from Sartori is a wine shaped by patience: months of drying, years of oak ageing, and a grape variety whose acidity remains intact through the whole process.
A Bottle To Understand It
The Sartori Amarone della Valpolicella is the bottle to start with. It is a full-bodied red wine made from Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella grown in Valpolicella Classica, dried on arele racks at Villa Maria, fermented after drying, and aged in oak before release. The concentration from appassimento gives it dried cherry, chocolate and a warmth in the body; the Corvina's natural acidity keeps the finish from feeling heavy. Tannin is firm and present. This is a wine that rewards a full evening rather than a quick glass, and it is the clearest path into everything that distinguishes Amarone as a style: the drying method, the Corvina-led blend, the extended ageing, and the long finish that the whole process produces.
Anecdote
In the summer of 2005, the Arena di Verona sent for wine. The ancient Roman amphitheatre had been staging opera in the open air since 1913, drawing audiences through Verona's warm nights to hear Aida and Nabucco in a stone bowl built two thousand years earlier. Sartori, whose cellars were in Negrar a short drive into the hills north of the city, became the official wine supplier to the opera season. The detail that holds is the physical contrast: Corvina grown on limestone slopes above the city, dried at Villa Maria on racks that had been there since before the Second World War, bottled under a label featuring Cangrande della Scala, and then poured in a Roman arena to an audience that had come for Verdi. The relationship continued from 2005 onward, placing a Valpolicella Classica house at the centre of the summer Veronese cultural calendar.
Final Word
Sartori is a centenary Valpolicella house that built its reputation on Amarone before the category had its current name. The 1961 bottling and 1965 exports are not just dates: they mark a producer that committed to the style and its international audience at a point when most of the world did not yet know what Amarone was. The arele racks at Villa Maria and the Cangrande brand are still there. So is the Amarone.
Sources
- https://sartoridiverona.it/en/history/
- https://sartoridiverona.it/en/territory/
- https://casasartori1898.it/en/sustainability/
- https://www.vinitaly.com/en/magazine/collis-heritage-spa-is-born-from-the-merger-of-cantine-riondo-and-casa-vinicola-sartori-1898/
- https://www.shawross.com/portfolio-of-products/our-brands/sartori-di-verona/
- https://sartoridiverona.it/en/wines/amarone/
- https://www.systembolaget.se/produkt/vin/amarone-della-valpolicella-7199801/