Societa Agricola Le Bignele

The story

The Name on the Gate

The Aldrighetti family took on land in the Bignele locality near Valgatara in 1818 and named the holding after the place. Two centuries passed, generations changed, and when the family began bottling and selling wine under their own label, they used the name already on the gate: Le Bignele. The locality name that described a piece of hill ground in a farming village in the early nineteenth century now appears on bottles of Amarone and Ripasso sold across Italy and beyond. The Bignele hillside has not moved. The family has not left. The name stayed because everything it referred to stayed with it.

From the atlas

Societa Agricola Le Bignele

At A Glance

The Producer

The Aldrighetti family has farmed the same hillside ground in Marano di Valpolicella since 1818. The estate takes its name from the Bignele locality, a small area near the hamlet of Valgatara where the family first acquired land, and that name has stayed on every bottle since. Over two centuries, the holding has grown to nine hectares spread across three communes in the Valpolicella Classico zone, and the operation remains entirely in family hands.

The current generation divides the work with unusual concreteness. Angelo, one of the founding generation still active at the estate, tends the vineyards through every stage of the season. His brother Luigi directs winemaking in the cellar. Their son and nephews and nieces carry the operational load: Nicola moves between vineyard, cellar, bottling, and labelling; Silvia manages commercial and administrative work; Cecilia runs cellar tours, tastings, and the wine accommodation. There is no hired management layer between the vines and the visitor.

The range has three wines: Valpolicella Classico, Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso, and Amarone della Valpolicella. All three come from the same four-variety blend grown on the same hillside parcels. The Ripasso sits at the centre of what Le Bignele does, and the method used to make it is the detail that separates this estate from most of its neighbours.

Place

Valpolicella Classico is the original, legally defined core of the Valpolicella appellation, a cluster of valleys running west of Verona toward Lake Garda. Marano di Valpolicella sits in the most western of those valleys, away from the flatland extensions that carry the broader Valpolicella DOC name. Wines labelled Valpolicella Classico must draw grapes from within this historic zone.

Le Bignele's nine hectares sit at approximately 300 metres above sea level across the communes of Marano di Valpolicella, Negrar, and San Pietro in Cariano. At that elevation, the growing season is longer and cooler than the valley floor, slowing ripening and keeping acidity in the grapes. The Valpolicella valleys open southward and catch afternoon sun, but the hillside parcels hold enough altitude to preserve freshness through harvest. The fruit retains lift even when the winemaking method, as in Ripasso or Amarone, concentrates it further.

Soil And Site

The hills of the Valpolicella Classico zone are built on calcareous clay and limestone, the type of terrain that runs through the western Veneto hill country. The Marano valley is narrower and higher than the adjacent Negrar and Fumane valleys, and the soils there tend toward limestone with clay subsoil. This ground drains well, limits vine vigour, and keeps the native Corvina-based blend with firm rather than soft fruit. No detailed geological analysis of Le Bignele's individual parcels is on record; the soils are consistent with the Marano valley type and the elevation reported for the estate's vineyards.

Story

The Aldrighetti family took on the Bignele land in 1818, when Marano di Valpolicella was a farming village with no commercial wine trade to speak of. The locality name Bignele, preserved in the estate name, marks the specific piece of ground the family first worked. For the better part of two centuries, the estate operated as a farming holding producing wine alongside other agricultural activity.

The decision to build a dedicated wine estate around the Valpolicella Classico hierarchy came gradually, shaped by the accumulated knowledge of Angelo and Luigi, who took over the core responsibilities of vineyard and cellar. When the third generation joined, the estate formalised its hospitality offer, adding wine accommodation and visitor tastings. Nicola, Silvia, and Cecilia absorbed the running of the estate while Luigi and Angelo remained active in the work they had always done.

The Ripasso at Le Bignele is made by refermenting Valpolicella base wine on Amarone pomace without adding dried grapes or Recioto. The traditional version of the method, in which Valpolicella base wine referments on Amarone pomace without any addition of dried grapes, was once standard across the zone. Many producers moved toward a more extracted, heavier style, adding dried grapes or Recioto to boost weight and commercial appeal. Le Bignele kept the pomace-only method, which produces a wine that is fuller than the Valpolicella Classico but lighter and more food-suited than most commercially available Ripasso.

Vineyards And Cellar

The nine hectares are planted with Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, and Molinara, the four native varieties that form the legal backbone of Valpolicella. Angelo manages all vineyard work through the season. The parcels sit at around 300 metres, where cooler temperatures slow ripening and the limestone-rich ground keeps yields in check.

In the cellar, Luigi oversees every stage of winemaking. The Valpolicella Classico is vinified conventionally and released for early drinking. For the Ripasso, the Valpolicella base wine passes over the pressed pomace remaining from Amarone fermentation and referments for ten days. No dried grapes are added. The wine then matures for one year in large oak cask. That extended pomace contact draws colour, body, and dried-fruit character from the grape skins without pushing the wine into Amarone territory.

The Amarone follows the appassimento method, in which harvested grapes are dried in ventilated lofts for several months before pressing. The concentrated must ferments slowly and ages in large oak cask for at least three years, though the precise duration varies by vintage: the 2014 spent 36 months in cask and the 2017 spent 26.

Wines

All three wines in the range come from the same Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, and Molinara blend grown across the estate's hillside parcels.

The Valpolicella Classico is the entry wine: a light-bodied, cherry-led red built for the table, with the characteristic bitter-edged finish that Corvina brings. It is made without extended oak ageing and is suited to drinking young.

The Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso adds a second fermentation and a year in large cask to the same base material. Ten days on Amarone pomace gives it darker fruit, more weight on the palate, and a dried-cherry depth that the straight Valpolicella does not carry. At 14% alcohol and without the structural weight of added dried grapes, it sits between the two flanking wines in colour, body, and intensity. Tannins are present and firm without being dense. The finish carries oak-derived roundness alongside the native grape acidity.

The Amarone della Valpolicella is the estate's most concentrated wine, made from dried grapes and aged for multiple years in large cask. The drying process raises sugar, which converts to higher alcohol and a richly textured palate with dark fruit, dried fig, and bitter chocolate notes typical of the style. The long oak ageing adds a secondary layer of dried spice and integrates the tannin. It requires time in bottle to open fully.

In The Glass

The Ripasso is the wine that shows most clearly what Le Bignele's hillside address and traditional method produce together. On the nose, it opens with dried cherry and dark plum, the dried-fruit note coming from the pomace contact rather than from added concentrated grape material. There is a faint spice underneath, not forward, and the oak from the large cask ageing reads as roundness rather than wood flavour.

In the mouth, the wine has medium body and a firm mid-palate. Acidity is active, the kind that cuts through the dried-fruit weight and keeps the wine from feeling heavy. The tannins are visible but not grippy. The finish is moderately long, with a characteristic Corvina bitterness on the close that marks it as Valpolicella regardless of the Ripasso method. There is no residual sweetness; the wine is dry throughout.

The Valpolicella Classico is lighter and more immediate, with fresh cherry and the same bitter edge at shorter length. The Amarone moves in a different direction entirely: dense, slow, and built around concentrated dark fruit and long tannin that needs years in bottle to settle.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with the Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso. It is Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, and Molinara from the estate's hillside parcels, refermented on Amarone pomace for ten days and aged one year in large cask. The wine sits at 14% alcohol and is dry from start to finish.

In the glass it gives dried cherry, medium body, firm acidity, and a moderate bitter close. No heaviness, no residual sweetness, no wood character that competes with the fruit. The tannin is present and settled. It shows what the traditional Ripasso method actually does: it borrows concentration and colour from the Amarone production without trying to become the Amarone. One bottle answers the questions about the estate's place, grape, method, and range position together.

Anecdote

The Aldrighetti family took on land in the Bignele locality near Valgatara in 1818, and at some point in those first years named the holding after the place. Two centuries passed, generations changed, and at some stage the question arose of what to call the wine estate when the family began bottling and selling under their own label. They used the name already on the gate: Le Bignele. The locality name that described a piece of hill ground in a farming village in the early nineteenth century now appears on bottles of Amarone and Ripasso sold across Italy and beyond. The Bignele hillside has not moved. The family has not left. The name stayed because everything it referred to stayed with it.

Final Word

Le Bignele is a small Valpolicella Classico estate with an unusually long record in one place. The Ripasso is its most instructive wine: made the traditional way, from pomace only, it is lighter and drier than most commercial Ripasso and connects directly to the four-variety blend that defines the zone. Nine hectares, one family, one method kept intact when the market moved elsewhere.

Sources

• https://www.lebignele.it/en/home-eng/
• https://www.lebignele.it/en/winery/
• https://vignaioliscelti.it/le-bignele/
• https://www.vinity.it/vini-per-regione/veneto/le-bignele/
• https://giacimenti.wine/wp-content/uploads/2023/Listino2023V2_web.pdf