Ca' Rugate

The viticulture story of the Tessari family began in the early years of the 1900's when Amedeo Tessari, known as "Midéo", rented an osteria in Presina, a small area of Albaredo d'Adige. He started out selling wine from the family's own production. They were difficult years in the Tessari household. The arrival of the First World War set the destiny of many families. Amedeo became sick while serving on the front and returned home to his family in Brognoligo. As destiny would have it, on November 4th, 1918, the day of the armistice, Amedeo, weakened by his illness, passed on.

With courage and sacrifice, Amedeo's wife, Donna Adele raised their children until the 1930's when their son Fulvio, known as «Beo» took over the family's business. Fulvio continued the work that his father laid out, for the most part focusing on the viticulture, purchasing the most prestigious vineyards of the hills of Rugate, making wine and selling their grapes, some to the local cooperative and some kept to make their own production. In 1950, in Brognoligo where intensive farming of the grapes is diffused, Fulvio purchased the first vineyards located in Monte Fiorentine area and focused on planting in this zone which had been overlooked for years.
It is was Fulvio, in the beginning of the 1970's who made the decision to emphasize and improve the quality of the grape, in complete autonomy with respect to the cooperative of the territory. Thus the winery Azienda Agricola Tessari Fulvio was born and Fulvio became the predecessor of what would become Ca'Rugate. In 1978 only 7 hectors (18 acres) were cultivated. 

At the end of the 1980's Fulvio's eldest son Amedeo unite their efforts to give life to Ca' Rugate whose name comes from the hills north of Brognoligo and where the house and the vineyards of the Estate are located.
The first bottles that carry the name Ca' Rugate are from the 1986 vintage. These were the years of "fermentation" for the Winery. The cellar in Brognoligo was enlarged and the wines begin to cross national borders. La Garganega variety at that time was the only grape planted and by 1999 covered 16 hectors (40 acres).

In 2001, as Michele was entering the family's business, carrying on as the fourth generation of grape growers, the Tessaris made the decision to build a new, larger and technologically advanced cellar along the road of the Val d'Alpone. An endeavor that was financially challenging but far-seeing. In the same year, the family decided to invest their experience in the Valpolicella area by purchasing the first vineyards in the hilly zone of Montecchia di Crosara.

The new cellar was inaugurated in 2002 which began the dynamic growth of the last ten years of the estate of Ca' Rugate. The arrival of Michele brings a lively entrepreneurial spirit that has permitted its expansion and further affirms the winery both in terms of quality and organization. It is in these last years that more considerable viticulture development has taken place. From 2002 to 2008 around 30 hectors (74 acres) have been purchased in the best areas of Monteforte d'Alpone and Montecchia di Crosara which makes a total of 48 hectors (119 acres).This strategic structural growth is supported by a distribution of the wine that covers 97 provinces of Italy and 23 foreign markets.

In the Soave Classico area the majority of the Estate's vineyards are situated on the Rugate hills and are trained on the Veronese pergola system and on the Guyot system. The principal variety is the Garganega, the grape used to make Soave Classico (San Michele, Monte Alto, Bucciato) and the Recioto di Soave (La Perlata), a sweet wine produced after the drying out of the grapes on trellises.

On the slopes facing south the soil is basaltic. The area is vast and more or less homogeneous, characteristics that have made it possible to identify a small area of 6 hectares (about 15 acres) from which the ”cru” Monte Fiorentine originates.

The 15 hectares (37 acres) of vineyards in the Valpolicella area are in the Montecchia di Crosara municipality at 450 meters (1476 feet) above sea level, straddling a sweet slope that dominates the small Alpone and Tramign valleys.

Depending on the grape variety and how it will be vinified, the plant density is between 5,000 to 6,500 vines per hectare (2,000-2,600 vines per acre).

The cru ”Campo Lavei” comes from an area where the soil is extremely reduced and contains a medium amount of limestone. The surface appears white, an important factor for grape ripening. L'Eremita and Amarone della Valpolicella wines come from a careful and attentive selection of the Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella grapes grown in this area.

Since 2002, Ca' Rugate has a new conceptually and technologically advanced wine cellar in Montecchia di Crosara. Spanning a 4,000 meter (13,123 feet) surface and divided between three levels, this productive facility houses all the processes of transformation of the grapes and vinification, aging, bottling and warehousing of the wines.

The lower level is primarily reserved for the aging of the wines: around 500 square meters with 200 barrique, tonneaux and large barrels all made from French oak. Part of the 20,000 bottles/year production of Fulvio Beo sparkling wine, made in the traditional method of second fermentation, is stored here, as well as, a collection of hundreds of “forgotten” bottles from older vintages.

On the  3,000 square meter ground floor, the grapes are received and pressed, the must is managed and vinification occurs in around 100 stainless steel vats of differing dimensions in order to accurately select the various winery's “cru”. Also in this area the wine is bottled and then warehoused at a controlled temperature of 18 degrees Celsius until the moment of sale.

The first floor of the winery is 500 square meters and is dedicated to the drying out of the grapes in order to make the Recioto di Soave. About 10,000 baskets a year are brought here, each holding about 5 kilos. By law of the DOC, the grapes for Amarone dry out in a small storeroom in the municipality of Cazzano di Tramigna. In both areas of Montecchia di Crosara and Cazzano, these storerooms are equipped with the conditions that guarantee ideal drying conditions: ventilation and a certain level of humidity.

Also on this level of the Winery, a 500 square meter Enomuseum was created. It houses the collection of antique oenological and viticulture equipment and tools. The Tessari family has conserved and maintained this complete heritage collected over three generations.