IN THE VINEYARDS & THE CELLAR

Guerrieri Rizzardi produces quality wines in each of the historic family estates. The relationship between the land, history and tradition has always represented our production philosophy, without however renouncing the innovations necessary to produce the best quality in each bottle of our wine.

FAMILY OWNED AND RUN

The vineyards and the three wineries are owned and run by the Rizzardi family and as a family business everything done here reflects the drive to make the best possible wine. We respect our ancient heritage and the land upon which our vines grow, some of the people that work here have been with the family for decades. Family members are personally involved in the vineyards and cellar work during harvest.

Panorama of the Guerrieri Rizzardi vineyards on the hills of Valpolicella.

GRAPE VARIETIES

The idea is to produce wines of the best quality, coming from the combined use of regional and international grapes: the choice is made according to the characteristics of the soil rather than according to local tradition and the appellations rules.
While the presence of Barbera and Sangiovese dates back to the beginning of last century, in the 90s we introduced Chardonnay, Merlot and Ancellotta, because we believe that they contribute to make our wines more complex and intense.

WORK IN THE WINES

Practices are ongoing and labour intensive: pruning is meticulous, allowing mostly only one cane per vine (simple guyot) and therefore a limited number of bunches. We adapt a tailor made work to every parcel, in order to obtain the number of bunches desired. To be in control of the yield per hectare is a crucial point for us, and we are happy to have the entire process completely under our own control (estate grown and bottled on the label prove it). Three different teams, a mix of young and experienced personnel work in Bardolino, Negrar and Soave to achieve all these tasks.

Young vines trained in rows on stony soil under the sun.

Team at work during the grape harvest among the vine rows of the Guerrieri Rizzardi estate.

HARVEST

We take good care of our grapes: a specific supervision program for each parcel of vines and the monitoring of the maturity of the grapes, guide our choice of harvest timing. Bunches of damaged or under-ripe grapes are removed by hand before machine harvest, a visual rigorous selection of the grapes is made, while harvesting by hand.

THE CELLARS

The winemaking takes place in our 3 cellars in Bardolino, Negrar and Soave, so that the grapes travel as little as possible from the vineyard to the cellar. Precise winemaking protocols, adapted to the different grape varieties, are reviewed annually and guide this delicate work phase, with the aim of obtaining white, rosé and red wines of personality and quality. Guerrieri Rizzardi aim to produce wines with good finesse, elegance and balance.