Italy · Valpolicella & Bardolino (Verona hills)

Tenuta Marcati

Verona-province label covering Custoza, Valpolicella, Ripasso and Amarone, with a family history that runs from a wartime pharmacy to a drinks company distributed across more than 40 countries.

The producer

Tenuta Marcati is the wine label of Gagliano Marcati, a Verona-province company with its current address in Sona, in the hills west of the city. The label covers the main appellation ladder of Verona wine: a hillside white from Custoza DOC south of Lake Garda, a Prosecco Extra Dry, and three reds that climb in weight from Valpolicella Superiore through Ripasso to Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG at the top. Corvina and Rondinella run through all three reds; the cellar method changes what the grape becomes.

The company behind the label began in a pharmacy in 1919. Pietro Marcati put the prescriptions aside and moved into spirits; his son Giuseppe restarted the business after wartime destruction in 1946; the third generation took over in 1978 and built the international distribution. The wine range developed alongside that expansion, following the appellations the region already carried in its name.

Known for

Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG, Valpolicella Ripasso DOC

Notable facts

The story

The Pharmacy of Veronella

Pietro Marcati came back to Veronella in 1919 with his brother Luigi, having spent the war years in the trenches. The town had a pharmacy with a long history and no one left to run it, and the brothers took it on. Pietro lasted a short time behind the dispensary counter before putting the mortar and pestle down for good. He had a different idea: spirits, made with the distilling knowledge that had circulated through the Veneto for generations. He retrained, set up a small production operation inside the pharmacy building, and started selling. By the time his son Giuseppe took over in 1946, the original plant had been bombed flat and there was nothing left except the family's determination to begin again. Giuseppe restarted from nothing, moved the business to Sommacampagna once it had steadied, and handed a functioning company to the third generation in 1978. The pharmacy Pietro and Luigi had walked into because it was available had become a drinks business reaching more than 40 countries.

From the atlas

Tenuta Marcati

At A Glance

The Producer

Tenuta Marcati is the wine label of Gagliano Marcati, a Verona-province drinks company registered in Sona, in the hills west of Verona city. The label covers the main appellation ladder of Verona wine: a hillside white from the Custoza DOC south of Lake Garda, a traditional Valpolicella Superiore, a Ripasso, and an Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG at the top. A Prosecco Extra Dry rounds out the range.

The company behind the label did not begin in wine. It began in a pharmacy in 1919 and spent its first decades in spirits. Wine came later, built on a family business that had already survived wartime destruction and a postwar rebuild. The range covers five appellations and reaches more than 40 countries.

Place

Verona sits at the western edge of the Veneto, where the Alps drop into the Po plain and the hills hold the climate in place long enough for grapes to dry. Two distinct wine zones define the Tenuta Marcati range.

Custoza DOC lies south of Lake Garda on low limestone and clay hills. The appellation is built around blended whites led by Garganega, the same grape that anchors Soave to the east. Here the blend runs Garganega, Trebbiano and Riesling, an unusual combination for the zone that adds a lifting aromatic thread to the more neutral Trebbiano base.

Valpolicella sits to the northeast of Verona city, on a series of valleys cut into the Lessini hills. The appellation name appears on three of the red bottles at different weights: Superiore at its lightest, Ripasso in the middle, Amarone at the top. Each uses the same two grapes, Corvina and Rondinella, but the cellar method changes what arrives in the glass. Valpolicella Superiore is a fresh, relatively light red. Ripasso is a second-pass wine that picks up the spent skins from the Amarone fermentation. Amarone dries the grapes themselves for months before pressing, concentrating everything.

Soil And Site

The Custoza hillside vineyards are selected from the Custoza area, a low range of limestone and clay south of Garda. Valpolicella's Lessini hills carry volcanic and alluvial soils across their valleys. Specific parcel ownership and soil composition for Tenuta Marcati's own vineyard sources are not documented in available material.

Story

In 1919, Pietro and Luigi Marcati came back from the First World War and took over the old pharmacy of Veronella, a town in the flatlands southeast of Verona. Pietro put pharmaceutical compounding aside and moved into spirits, drawing on distilling knowledge that had been in the region for generations. The pharmacy became a drinks business.

The war that followed destroyed the industrial plant entirely. In 1946, Pietro's son Giuseppe took over what remained and restarted. A decade later the operation moved to new headquarters in Sommacampagna, in the Verona hills, and the company found stable ground. In 1978, the third generation, Pietro, Andrea and Maria Paola, assumed leadership. It was under this generation that the company moved into export seriously, eventually reaching more than 40 countries. The wine range under the Tenuta Marcati label developed alongside that international expansion, built around the appellations the region already had in its name: Custoza, Valpolicella, Ripasso, Amarone.

Vineyards And Cellar

The Custoza DOC white is assembled from hillside plots in the Custoza area, selecting Garganega, Trebbiano and Riesling. Garganega provides the base; Riesling adds aromatic lift and acidity not typical of the appellation; Trebbiano contributes body and volume.

For the Amarone, Corvina and Rondinella bunches are harvested and then dried in ventilated rooms until late winter, a process called appassimento. The extended drying period loses around 30 to 40 percent of the grape weight to evaporation, concentrating sugars, phenolics and flavour compounds before fermentation begins. The wine then ages in oak barrels for at least two years, followed by bottle refinement before release.

The Ripasso takes the unpressed skins left from the Amarone fermentation and adds them to an already fermented and blended Valpolicella. A second fermentation lifts the alcohol and extracts additional colour, tannin and dried-fruit character from the skins. Oak ageing for at least one year follows. The process gives a Valpolicella more body and depth than the Superiore without requiring the full appassimento cycle.

The Valpolicella Superiore uses Corvina and Rondinella in the traditional proportions, aged to gain the Superiore designation without the additional skins or drying stages.

Wines

The range covers five appellations across two colour lines.

The Custoza DOC is a dry white from Garganega, Trebbiano and Riesling, drawn from hillside vineyards south of Lake Garda. The Riesling proportion is an atypical choice for the zone and pulls the wine toward a fresher, more aromatic profile than many Custoza blends.

The Prosecco Extra Dry DOC is a sparkling wine from Glera only, made in the extra-dry style with a small residual sugar above the brut threshold.

The three reds form a clear weight ladder. The Valpolicella Superiore DOC is the lightest, a Corvina and Rondinella blend described as pure and velvety. The Valpolicella Ripasso DOC sits in the middle: Corvina and Rondinella refermented on Amarone skins, with at least one year in oak, producing a darker, denser wine with more dried-fruit character and grip than the Superiore. The Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG is the apex: Corvina and Rondinella dried until late winter, then fermented and aged for a minimum of two years in oak plus additional bottle time. The Amarone is full-bodied and silky but also powerful, with dried plum, fig, black cherry, dark berries, and candied orange peel. The tannins are ripe, soft and tightly woven, with balanced acidity and a persistent finish of chocolate, dried fruit, smoke, almond and dark cherry.

In The Glass

Across the red range, Corvina and Rondinella are the traditional varieties used for the Valpolicella reds. The method determines the weight.

The Valpolicella Superiore pours with a light ruby colour, the Corvina showing fresh red cherry and a softly tannic, velvety mouthfeel. It is the most direct of the three reds.

The Ripasso is darker and more substantial. The second fermentation on Amarone skins pulls dried cherry and plum alongside the fresh fruit, oak ageing rounds the tannins, and the finish carries more length than the Superiore. At around 13 to 14 percent alcohol, it is a medium-full red with enough body to pair with roasted meats.

The Amarone opens on dried cherry and damson, then moves through dark chocolate and a leathery undertone on the nose. In the mouth, the concentration from appassimento shows as a full, almost chewy body; the tannins are firm and present but have resolved enough to integrate. Acidity holds the wine in balance despite the dried-fruit weight, and the finish is long and warm. It is a wine that rewards food or several years of bottle age.

The Custoza shows a pale straw colour, with the Riesling contributing a floral and citrus lift over the rounder Garganega base. Light to medium body, fresh acidity, a clean finish.

A Bottle To Understand It

The Valpolicella Ripasso DOC is the bottle that shows what the Tenuta Marcati range is built around. It takes the Corvina and Rondinella base of the Valpolicella Superiore and runs it through a second fermentation on the unpressed skins left from Amarone production. Oak ageing for at least one year follows. The outcome is a wine with more colour, more tannin and a dried-fruit overlay over the fresh cherry core, without the full weight and concentration of the Amarone itself. It sits at the mid-point of the red range deliberately, demonstrating the ripasso technique in its clearest form. The tannins are firm but not hard, the body is full enough to need food, and the finish has more length than the entry-level Valpolicella Superiore. Start here to understand how the three-tier red system works and what appassimento skin contact does to a Valpolicella base.

Anecdote

Pietro Marcati came back to Veronella in 1919 with his brother Luigi, having spent the war in the trenches. The town had a pharmacy with a long history and no one to run it. The brothers took it on. Pietro spent a short time filling prescriptions before putting the mortar and pestle down for good. He had a different idea: spirits, made with the distilling craft that had circulated in the Veneto for centuries. He retrained, set up a small production operation inside the pharmacy building, and started selling. By the time his son Giuseppe took over in 1946, the original plant had been bombed flat and there was nothing left of the postwar inventory except the family's willingness to start again. Giuseppe restarted the business from nothing, moved it to Sommacampagna once it had found its footing, and handed a functioning company to the third generation in 1978. The pharmacy of Veronella, which Pietro and Luigi had walked into because it was available, had become a drinks business reaching more than 40 countries.

Final Word

Tenuta Marcati covers the main appellation architecture of Verona wine in a single range: a hillside white from Custoza, a Prosecco, and three reds that climb from fresh Valpolicella through Ripasso to full Amarone. The family behind the label arrived in wine through spirits and pharmacy, not through inherited vineyards, and the range reflects a deliberate appellation-by-appellation build rather than a single-estate focus. The Ripasso is the clearest entry into how the system works.

Sources

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