From the atlas
La Cappuccina Societa Agricola Semplice
At A Glance
Estate: La Cappuccina Societa Agricola Semplice Village: Costalunga di Monteforte d'Alpone Appellation: Soave DOC; Recioto di Soave DOCG Region: Veneto, Italy Key Grapes: Garganega, Trebbiano di Soave Certified Organic Since: 1985 Vineyards: 42 hectares across three parcels
The Producer
The Tessari family has made wine at La Cappuccina in Costalunga di Monteforte d'Alpone since 1890, farming the same volcanic hillside east of Verona across five generations. The estate sits inside the Soave DOC zone, and the current generation runs it as a working unit: Pietro, trained in oenology at Conegliano, leads the cellar; Elena manages marketing; Sisto, a Padua-trained agronomist, represents the estate abroad.
La Cappuccina became one of the earliest certified-organic estates in the Soave zone in 1985, committing to organic methods across every production stage from vine to bottle. Four decades on, Slow Wine reported the estate is now in biodynamic conversion. The same cockerel logo has appeared on their label since the family named the estate after the seventeenth-century Capuchin chapel attached to Villa Buri-Tessari.
Place
Soave DOC sits on the eastern edge of the Veneto, roughly thirty kilometres east of Verona. Within it, the Classico zone covers the older volcanic hills around Soave town, while Monteforte d'Alpone marks the eastern boundary where basalt soils dominate. Costalunga, where La Cappuccina's main parcels lie, belongs to this volcanic eastern band.
The Soave appellation is built around Garganega, a white grape that performs differently on volcanic basalt than it does on the alluvial plains to the south. On basalt, Garganega tends to give wines with firmer acidity, a savory edge, and a mineral quality on the finish rather than soft, broad fruit. The appellation allows Trebbiano di Soave as a blending component, and the label category carries through from the dry Soave DOC to the dessert wine tier, Recioto di Soave DOCG, which requires appassimento and produces a concentrated amber sweet wine from the same grape.
Soil And Site
La Cappuccina's 42 hectares divide across three parcels: San Brizio and Monte Stelle at Costalunga, and Pergola in Montecchia in the Val d'Alpone. The vineyards sit at 100 to 200 metres, face southeast, and carry a mix of Guyot and modified Veronese pergola training. Vines range from 20 to 40 years old, with some parcels exceeding 40 years.
The soil is volcanic basalt, rich in phosphorus, potassium, calcium, iron, manganese, and zinc. These microelements pass into vine nutrition and contribute to the flinty, savory character that defines the Soave style at La Cappuccina. The winery itself stands at the foot of Monte Capitello behind Villa Buri, and the barrel cellar is cut into the mountain's basalt floor, the same lava formation that runs beneath the vines above.
Story
The Tessaris arrived at Costalunga in 1890 and farmed the volcanic hillside through the twentieth century in the way most small Veneto estates did: growing Garganega, pressing it, and selling it. The estate's name came from the Capuchin chapel attached to the family villa, a seventeenth-century building that still stands.
The pivot came in 1985, when La Cappuccina adopted certified-organic methods across every stage of production, from vine cultivation through bottling. In the mid-1980s, organic certification in the Soave zone was unusual. Most producers in the area were moving toward higher yields and mechanised vineyards, not away from them. The Tessaris chose dense planting, short pruning, cover crops, green manure, and copper and sulphur treatments in place of synthetic inputs. That commitment has not changed. Slow Wine's 2024 coverage noted the estate was certified organic and undergoing biodynamic conversion, meaning the Tessaris are now moving further, toward a farming philosophy that accounts for the lunar calendar and soil biology alongside chemistry.
Vineyards And Cellar
Vineyard work at La Cappuccina centres on low yields and soil health. Dense planting forces competition between vines, limiting individual vine vigour and concentrating flavour in the fruit. Cover crops and green manure build organic matter in the basalt soils. Short pruning limits the number of grape clusters per vine. Copper and sulphur replace synthetic fungicides.
In the cellar, the Soave is handled simply. The must settles at low temperature, ferments in temperature-controlled steel tanks, and then rests on its lees for approximately seven months before bottling. No oak, no additions. The lees contact adds texture and a savory depth to the wine without altering the grape's aromatic character. For Arzimo, the process is the opposite of speed: late-harvested Garganega is air-dried by appassimento, concentrated until four kilograms of fruit yield a single 500 ml bottle, pressed on Valentine's Day, then aged in oak barrels and further in bottle before release. The winery runs a photovoltaic system for energy, keeping the estate's environmental approach consistent from vineyard to building.
Wines
The range at La Cappuccina moves across two main white categories and a set of red blends. Garganega is the thread that connects the most important bottles.
The Soave DOC is the estate's core wine, a dry white built on Garganega with Trebbiano di Soave. After seven months on lees in steel, it carries aromatics of white flowers, herbs, yellow fruit, citrus, jujube, and lychee, with a vibrant, savory finish that the producer describes as flinty. It is a wine for the table, not the cellar, though the lees contact gives it enough weight to hold its shape with food.
Arzimo Recioto di Soave DOCG occupies the other end of the range. Made by appassimento from late-harvested Garganega, it requires extraordinary concentration: four kilograms of dried fruit per 500 ml bottle. The wine ages in oak and then in bottle before release, developing depth and sweetness held in balance by Garganega's natural acidity. Its profile is rich amber, dried apricot, and honey, with the kind of density that comes from months of slow desiccation rather than added sugar.
The estate also produces reds from Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Carmenere, Corvina, and Oseleta, though the whites carry the estate's defining character.
In The Glass
The Soave opens with white flowers and herbs, then broadens into yellow fruit and citrus. In the mouth, the seven months on lees give it a faintly creamy texture, fuller than most steel-fermented dry whites, without any weight that slows the finish. The acidity is live and mid-weight. At the back of the palate, the volcanic basalt registers: a savory, flinty edge that lifts the citrus and keeps the wine from reading as simply fruity. Gilbert and Gaillard assessed the 2020 vintage as light and plump yet lively, with clean aromatics and lemon character. The finish is clean and dry.
Arzimo is a different register entirely. The appassimento concentrates Garganega to the point where the sweetness is dense and amber-deep, the fruit moving toward dried apricot, orange peel, and honey. The acidity is still present in Arzimo, but here it works to balance sweetness over a long finish rather than to lift the wine off the palate. These are two wines from one grape making opposite arguments about what Garganega can be.
A Bottle To Understand It
Start with the La Cappuccina Soave DOC. It is a dry white Garganega, fermented in steel and held on lees for seven months, with no oak and no added sweetness. The wine gives you the basalt of Costalunga in the glass: white flower aromatics, yellow fruit, and a flinty, savory finish that stays clean and dry. Its weight sits between a lean Muscadet and a textured white Burgundy, substantial enough to take with food, light enough to work as an aperitif. Nothing about it is difficult. Buy one bottle to understand what Garganega does on volcanic soil when the farming is careful and the cellar stays out of the way.
Anecdote
Every year at La Cappuccina, the date of pressing is not a winemaking decision. It is Valentine's Day. The Garganega destined for Arzimo Recioto di Soave is harvested late, then laid out to dry through the appassimento process, losing water and concentrating sugar for months in the estate's drying rooms. When February fourteenth arrives, the fruit goes to press, regardless of where the vintage or the weather has left the cellar schedule. The ratio is fixed too: four kilograms of dried grapes go into each 500 ml bottle. Most winemakers talk about concentration in abstract terms. At La Cappuccina, it is a number and a date on the calendar, and neither has changed.
Final Word
La Cappuccina is a fifth-generation organic estate on volcanic basalt in the Soave DOC, making one of the clearest arguments available for what this hillside does to Garganega. The dry Soave is honest, mineral, and savory. The Arzimo is one of Veneto's most concentrated sweet whites. The estate has farmed without synthetic inputs since 1985, and is now moving toward biodynamics. That consistency across 130 years of ownership, 40 years of organic practice, and one parcel on basalt makes the bottles easier to trust.
Sources
- https://lacappuccina.it/eng/about-us/
- https://lacappuccina.it/eng/
- https://lacappuccina.it/eng/values/
- https://lacappuccina.it/eng/slow-wine-2024/
- https://lacappuccina.it/eng/soave/
- https://lacappuccina.it/eng/arzimo/
- https://www.gilbertgaillard.com/en/resultats/la-cappuccina-soave-251767