Sartori

“I knew my great-grandfather, but not my grandfather, becuase fate decreed that the father outlive his son,” says Andrea Sartori, President of the company, “Despite a rather grumpy character, he had certain affection for my brother and me.” Sartori di Verona was founded out of the entrepreneurial spirit of grandfather Pietro. Eccentric yes, but from a business point of view magmatic. His days were spent in a thousand different undertakings. However, this whirlwind of interests reached a turning point, stability, in the running of his trattoria.

It is the last part of 1800s: Pietro Sartori’s trattoria was a place that could not be missed for merchants, small industrialists, and businessmen of the area, for whom Pietro could never lack the best Rosso Veronese, as it called back then.

It was this inn and its strategic location that would turn Pietro into a wine merchant: the daily pouring over the counter and the direct sales to the public in demijohns and bottles made it necessary to have a steady supply of wine that was sufficient in both quantity and quality.

Thus, in 1898 grandfather Pietro bought his first vineyard in Negrar, so that the good wine would always be on the tables of his devoted clientele. In those days, horses had to carry people and goods, and Peter rode like a pioneer determined to find opportunities to expand businesses everywhere job opportunities and growth arose, in Verona, in Brescia, on the shores of Lake Garda, and lower Trentino. A flourishing business definitely did not deter him, however, from his desire to have a large family: he had five children and he made them all study, encouraging them to attain a degree, something that was not too common at that time.

Now among the Sartori family, there stood a lawyer, an engineer, a doctor … and Regolo, the sole heir to exhibit, without a doubt, a calling for wine.

It would be Regolo, who would take charge of the company after Pietro’s retirement and re-launch the family’s trademark towards the second half of the last century.

I Saltari

The vineyards are in different locations and as such have different harvest periods, favouring optimal selection of grapes. The grapes are harvested by hand and put in small plastic trays, they are then transported to the vinifying cellars as soon as possible, there the process begins with grape selection prior to pressing and de-stalking. During this operation two or more people carefully follow the process in order to ensure the integrity of the product is maintained.

I Saltari follows a harvest procedure as follows:

-Part harvest of ripe grapes

-Part harvest of over ripe grapes

-Part harvest of appx. 10/15 % extra ripe grapes to promote more consistency, structure and tipicity of the product.

Harvest and vinification of the grapes are all done separately.

Vinification takes place in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks with the use of techniques such as rack & return and regular pumpovers.

After racking all three wines are kept separate and after malolactic fermentation are transferred to oak barrels which are made of different types of oak and come from different countries.

225lt Barriques

500lt Puncheons

2000-2500lt casks.

I Saltari represents the best possible fruit and oak integration available whilst maintaining the original identity of the land (Terroir) and grapes.A very light filtration prior to bottling retains the natural characteristics of the wine. which will achieve full maturation in the bottle kept in temperature controlled cellars at 16 to 18 degree Centigrade.

When it comes to wine today, there is much left for us to do; our business plans are both numerous and ambitious. One of the most impassioned projects concerns the acquisition of Mont’Albano, a Friulian estate that was among the first to believe and invest in organic wine. Identifying with this method of agriculture and grasping its potential, Sartori, in 2008, embraced the philosophy of Mont’Albano’s founder, Mauro Braidot.

Sartori provided him with more innovative means to produce the classic wines of the Friuli Grave DOC zone and, most important, it subsequently grafted to his totally eco-compatible production process, the high-powered marketing of made by Sartori. Along similar lines, Sartori is also a pioneer in Abruzzo, an area with great wine growing potential, although yet untapped, whether in terms of production, or image, or marketing.

In 2003, Sartori made an agreement with the Cerulli Spinozzi estate, with the aim of reviving momentum and the value of the 53 hectares of indigenous grapes from which come authentic Southern Italian fine wines such as Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Colline Teramane DOCG, or Trebbiano d’Abruzzo.