• Contact: Fabio Tezza
• Where: Ravazzol, Marano (see map below)
• Website: www.contramalini.it
• N. bottles produced / year: 10,000
• Vineyards: 3 hectares (7.4 acres)
• Farming: sustainable
• Rooms or B&B: no

STORY

In the Marano di Valpolicella municipality countryside there is a place called "House of The Sun" since the most ancient time: its name nowadays is Ravazzol and here Tezza family has been living since 3 generations.

PEOPLE

Fabio Tezza is now the owner, and with the help of his old father he cultivates the vines and makes the wine in their small - yet equipped with any tool - cellar. His activity started in 1995, when his father charged him of everything

Vineyards

Fabio has  1.5 ha, and other 1.5 ha are to rent. The vineyards - 25 year old in average - are in the surrounded hills (alt. max 265 m), he handles any single vine in person. The grapes are the traditional Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, Molinara, Croatina, which grow on calcareous soil. The agronomic running is traditional yet sustainable.

Winemaking

The wines are fermented with commercial yeasts. The bottling phase occurs in the winery, with a small plant of bottling. Fabio Tezza loves to use different woods to age his wine: barrels and barrique, both old and new.

• Grape selection table: no
• Fluids processed by gravity: no
• Drying process: in house
• Type of drying process: only fans and windows
• Bottling: in the winery

Wines

Besides the whole range of Classic Wines, there are some white and red IGP wines (Indicazione Geografica Protetta, Protected Origin Denomination), both dry and sweet.

The most remarkable thing, anyway, is the fact that this producer is one of the very few producers who make 2 different Recioto della Valpolicella, the more and more rare dessert wine.

• Valpolicella Classico DOC
• Valpolicella Classico Superiore DOC
• Valpolicella Classico Ripasso DOC "del Rosario"
• Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG
• Recioto della Valpolicella Classico DOCG
• Recioto della Valpolicella Classico DOC "del Rosario"

• Stock of old vintages: yes
• Selling of old vintages: no

Export

Italy, Denmark, Holland, Austria.

The wines we reviewed

The wines

• Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOCG 2008
• Valpolicella Classico Superiore DOC 2011

will be at the Terroir Amarone "Rare and Unusual Masterclass: Amarone and Valpolicella Superiore" - Montreux, Switzerland Hotel Suisse Majestic October 30, 2014, hosted by the Digital Wine Communications Conference.