Italy · Soave, Gambellara & Lessini (eastern Verona / western Vicenza)

Fasoli Gino

A four-generation family estate in the Illasi Valley of eastern Verona, farming organically since 1984 and biodynamically since 2006. The range spans Valpolicella, Bardolino, Prosecco, and a barrel-aged Garganega white with serious cellar ambition.

The producer

Fasoli Gino is a family estate in Colognola ai Colli, in the Illasi Valley of eastern Verona, making wines across five appellations: Valpolicella DOC, Bardolino DOC, Chiaretto di Bardolino DOC, Prosecco Spumante DOC, and Bianco Veronese IGT. The estate has farmed without pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers since 1984, converted to biodynamic practice in 2006, and received Equalitas sustainability certification in 2023. Natalino Fasoli runs the operation today as the third generation, with his son Matteo as the fourth.

The main range, La Corte del Pozzo, covers ten wines. Above the range sits Pieve Vecchia, 100% Garganega fermented in tonneaux and aged on its own yeasts for more than twelve months, with up to fifteen years of declared ageing potential. It is the bottle where the estate's farming philosophy and cellar ambition become legible in the glass.

Known for

Organic and biodynamic Veneto wines, with a flagship white Pieve Vecchia Garganega aged on lees in tonneaux.

Notable facts

The story

The Allergy That Changed the Farming

By the early 1980s, Gino Fasoli had spent a decade expanding the family business. The vineyard work ran on the chemical treatments that every competent grower in eastern Verona used at the time. Then Gino's hands started reacting. The reaction was not vague sensitivity but a confirmed allergy to the pesticides and herbicides he had been applying himself, season after season. He could not continue farming the way he had been farming. The family switched to organic cultivation in 1984. Two years later, every plot the estate worked had completed the conversion. What had begun as a physical impossibility became the estate's defining characteristic: by the time organic farming became commercially fashionable in Italian wine, Fasoli Gino had already been doing it for more than a decade.

From the atlas

Fasoli Gino

At A Glance

The Producer

Fasoli Gino is a four-generation family estate in the Illasi Valley of eastern Verona. The winery makes wines across five appellations, from sparkling Prosecco to Valpolicella and Bardolino reds, to a serious barrel-aged Garganega white called Pieve Vecchia. What separates it from dozens of comparable Veneto estates is timing: the family converted to organic farming in 1984, when organic viticulture in northeastern Italy was not a positioning decision but a genuine outlier. Natalino Fasoli runs the estate today as the third generation, with his son Matteo representing the fourth.

The name Fasoli Gino honours the man who expanded the business in the 1970s. That expansion came with the chemical vineyard treatments standard in the era. Then Gino developed an allergy to those chemicals, and the direction changed.

Place

The Illasi Valley runs west to east through the hills of eastern Verona, opening onto the Po Plain. It sits outside the core sub-zones of the Valpolicella Classico area to the northwest, and well east of Lake Garda, where Bardolino has its natural home. Colognola ai Colli, where the winery stands at Via Cesare Battisti 47, falls within the broader Valpolicella DOC zone, which allows wines from the extended eastern hills as well as the classic western parishes.

Producing across multiple appellations from a single Illasi Valley base means the estate's range does not belong to one canonical wine address. The Valpolicella and Bardolino are DOC wines governed by their respective consortiums. The Prosecco is DOC, produced from Glera by the Charmat tank method. Pieve Vecchia sits outside any named village appellation and carries the broader Bianco Veronese IGT designation, which gives the winemaker latitude on grape variety, fermentation vessel, and ageing time that a strict DOC would not allow.

Soil And Site

The Illasi Valley sits in the eastern Verona hills, a region known for calcareous terrain. The valley floor gives way to hillside terraces at varying altitudes, with good drainage on the slopes. Garganega, the dominant white grape of the region and the sole variety in Pieve Vecchia, performs well on these calcareous soils, producing wines with naturally firm acidity and a tendency toward mineral weight when yields are controlled and ageing is extended.

Story

Amadio Fasoli planted his first vines in the early 1920s and delivered demijohns of wine to local taverns by horse and cart. The first invoice was issued in 1925.

His son Gino took over and expanded production through the 1970s, working the vineyards with the synthetic treatments that were then the industry norm. Gino developed a physical allergy to those treatments. The allergy forced the question, and the answer came in 1984: the estate moved to organic farming and stopped using pesticides, herbicides, and synthetic fertilizers. By 1986, every vineyard the family farmed had converted.

Two decades later, in 2006, the estate went further. Natalino Fasoli introduced biodynamic practice, scheduling vineyard work in alignment with lunar cycles and switching to natural preparations. A new winery opened in 2003, and the original winery and drying loft were renovated in 2015. In 2023 the estate received Equalitas certification, an Italian sustainability standard covering social, environmental, and economic performance. The farming evolution did not stop at a single moment of conversion; it continued in layers across four decades.

Vineyards And Cellar

Fasoli Gino farms without pesticides, herbicides, or synthetic fertilizers. Regenerative practices and active biodiversity management are part of the daily vineyard routine, aimed at keeping the soil alive and the vine's immune system functioning without chemical support. Biodynamic preparations are applied, and lunar timing guides key vineyard operations.

In the cellar, method follows grape and wine ambition. The La Corte del Pozzo Valpolicella is fermented and matured entirely in stainless steel, which preserves the primary fruit character of Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella rather than adding oak or weight. A portion of those grapes undergoes light appassimento, drying on racks for 15 to 20 days before fermentation. This partial drying concentrates sugars and colour slightly and adds body and mid-palate density, but it stays well short of the extended drying used for Amarone or Ripasso.

Pieve Vecchia takes a different route. The Garganega is fermented in tonneaux and then aged on its own yeasts for more than twelve months. That extended lees contact builds texture, develops complexity, and softens the oak's presence. The producer assigns up to 15 years of ageing potential to this wine.

Wines

The main range is called La Corte del Pozzo and runs to ten wines. The Valpolicella DOC is the red anchor of the range: Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella, partially dried before fermentation, then raised in stainless steel. It opens with ripe cherry and spice on the nose and finishes dry, with a mid-palate weight that goes beyond a simple everyday red.

La Corte del Pozzo Prosecco Spumante DOC is made from Glera by the Charmat tank method, as Prosecco regulations require. It is fresh and light, with stone fruit and white flower, and carries 12.5% alcohol. The Bardolino DOC and Chiaretto di Bardolino DOC complete the light-red and rosato positions in the range.

Pieve Vecchia stands apart. It is 100% Garganega, barrel-fermented in tonneaux, aged on lees for more than twelve months, and classified as Bianco Veronese IGT. Where the La Corte del Pozzo wines are designed for relatively early drinking, Pieve Vecchia accumulates: the tonneaux gives a faint vanilla warmth; the long lees contact adds a creamy, slightly saline richness; and Garganega's natural acidity keeps the whole thing from going heavy.

In The Glass

The Valpolicella opens with Corvina's characteristic sour cherry, a dusting of dried spice, and a faint herbal note that is typical of the eastern Verona hills. The partial appassimento deepens the mid-palate: more density than a conventional unapassito Valpolicella, slightly richer colour, and a dry finish that holds. It is not a big wine, but it has enough body to carry food.

Pieve Vecchia is a different conversation. Garganega on its own in barrel and on lees for a year or more develops a complex aromatic profile: white stone fruit, almond, and a waxy, lightly honeyed quality that does not come from sweetness but from extended yeast contact. In the mouth, the acidity is firm and persistent, the texture almost creamy, and the finish long with a mineral edge. It ages well because the components are in balance, not because any single element dominates.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Pieve Vecchia Bianco Veronese IGT. It is 100% Garganega, fermented in tonneaux and aged on lees for more than twelve months, with up to 15 years of declared ageing potential. The nose offers white peach, almond, and a light waxiness; the palate is textured rather than heavy, with firm acidity, a creamy mid-palate built by the lees, and a finish with a clean mineral spine. It is the wine that shows what the family's farming and cellar decisions actually produce when given time and space: Garganega from organic and biodynamic vines, handled in oak without being overwhelmed by it, aged long enough to develop real complexity. The La Corte del Pozzo Valpolicella is the quicker route into the range, but Pieve Vecchia is where the estate's ambition is legible.

Anecdote

By the early 1980s, Gino Fasoli had spent a decade expanding the family business. The vineyard work ran on the chemical treatments that every competent grower in eastern Verona used at the time. Then Gino's hands started reacting. The reaction was not vague sensitivity but a confirmed allergy to the pesticides and herbicides he had been applying himself, season after season. He could not continue farming the way he had been farming. The family switched to organic cultivation in 1984. Two years later, every plot the estate worked had completed the conversion. What had begun as a physical impossibility became the estate's defining characteristic: by the time organic farming became commercially fashionable in Italian wine, Fasoli Gino had already been doing it for more than a decade.

Final Word

Fasoli Gino is a Veneto estate that made its most important decision under duress rather than by calculation. The organic conversion of 1984 came before certification mattered commercially, before natural wine was a genre, and before sustainability had entered the mainstream wine conversation. Four decades of farming without pesticides or synthetic fertilizers, followed by biodynamic practice since 2006, show in the wines: the Valpolicella has a freshness that over-cropped conventional versions rarely achieve, and Pieve Vecchia, aged in barrel on its lees, makes a genuine case for Garganega as a serious ageing white in the right hands.

Sources

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