For the month of November, we’re introducing you to the Cornelia Tessari winery, which has been producing Soave Classico wines in Monteforte d’Alpone for nearly a century. It all began in the 1930s, when Antonio Tessari and his wife Cornelia began vinifying Garganega grapes from their one-hectare vineyard in the cellar below their home. Thanks to the hard work of Antonio and Cornelia’s son Aldo, and his wife Bianca, the winery has grown over the years and is now led by their three children, Antonio, Germano, and Cornelia. A few years ago, Nicola also joined the company, the first representative of the fourth generation of Tessaris at the winery. We had the opportunity to chat with Nicola about their values, roots, and projects.

As a first word, and also to introduce and present the company, I propose FAMILY. The structure of your winery is based on the family ties that exist between the various members and on the legacy passed down to you by your grandparents and great-grandparents.

• First of all, thank you. I’m glad the family connection is being noted. I always like to thank my great-grandparents for everything they’ve done, otherwise we wouldn’t have the opportunity to be here and experience this wonderful adventure. It took me years to fully understand how fortunate I am. Seeing your family believe in a project and a lifestyle for so many years (because that’s what it is, after all) places a huge responsibility on you, but I realize how wonderful it is. Returning here after so many years abroad, I’ve seen that there are truly values ​​that have served as a unifying force and helped us get to where we are over the years. My great-grandparents worked so hard, as did my grandparents, my parents, and my uncle and aunt. Now that I have children of my own, it’s truly wonderful to be able to see the image of a family that started so many years ago and is still continuing in the same direction. They taught us the job, how to work hard, and how to help each other. This is home for me, and it’s wonderful that we’re able to do everything ourselves. Sure, we have outside help, but seeing that the people who worked here before me have managed to build this solid foundation is truly special. And being able to look ahead and see that there’s a chance for us as a company to continue this family bond and continue in this way gives me great hope for the future.

Your personal experience is also very significant: after many years abroad, you, your wife, and your children decided to return and start working in the family business.

• Family is extremely important to me, because when I decided to leave and gain experience abroad, there was a lot of openness in this regard. So for me it was like a magnet. I wasn’t expecting it, but at a certain point I was drawn home to family, for so many of these values ​​that are lived here. Having the opportunity to include my wife, Taylor, in the project, and having the perspective of someone from a different culture, was certainly an incentive. So it was almost a necessity to return home and work with the family. It was a long journey, but seeing the strong bond that still unites us today is very beautiful.

It’s interesting to note how often in family businesses, there’s a tendency to keep children close by to introduce them to this world as quickly as possible, while you’ve been free to gain your own experience for many years. It wasn’t a given that you’d return…

• I’d say, since we’re in the organic world, it was truly organic. I wasn’t forced to do anything. It may seem stereotypical, but the distance really led to a better connection and an even stronger bond. Recognizing where you come from is always very important. Then, as a family, we’re fortunate to each have our own way of thinking, which keeps us united and at the same time gives us the opportunity to look at things differently. Working as a family is special, because you have such a closeness that you can talk to each other very directly.

The second topic I would like to address is that of GARGANEGA, the local grape variety that is extremely representative of your reality.

• As a family, we are deeply rooted in tradition, which here is Garganega, but we also always strive to be mindful of how we look to the future. A discussion we often return to is whether we should explore other varieties and expand our offerings. In the end, we always come to the same conclusion: Garganega is the grape par excellence for us. Our family has been supported by Garganega for almost a hundred years, and so it’s a grape for which we are deeply grateful. In a world where there’s currently a tendency to follow international varietals or blends, we pride ourselves on being able to rely on a local grape and work with it in all its diverse facets and colors. One thing I always like to emphasize is that not all grapes offer this possibility. For us, Garganega is a true lifestyle.

It’s a grape variety that also gives you the opportunity to experiment a lot: I’ve known you for four years now, and every year I’ve seen new labels and new projects emerge. The first few times I came here, there weren’t even the I° Ettaro, the Vermouth, the Classic Method… How many labels have you got now?

• We currently have nine labels, and who knows, maybe there will be more. This is precisely the fruit of the experimentation born from the collaboration between Antonio, Cornelia, and Germano to find different ways to develop this incredible grape variety. In recent years, we have tried to innovate while maintaining tradition: with the I° Ettaro, we revived the use of cement, as our grandparents did, and we have created a wine that we can truly say is unique and rare in our appellation. Natus, our classic method, is the beginning of a new journey. There are so many other things we can still work on, and we, in our own small way, see many wonderful opportunities ahead of us that we can develop by working with other methods. So we continue to experiment and see what directions we can take. Therefore, next year could already lead to other wines to offer. The world of wine is a beautiful one, and Garganega is the perfect partner for exploring new horizons.

Simply put, Garganega is your true identity. I’m not saying you’re the only winery, but you’re one of the few in the area to offer 100% Garganega wines, while many other Soave wineries also branch out into Valpolicella or international grape varieties. It’s become your trademark, we might say.

• Yes, and we’re very pleased to be known as such. I think our uniqueness lies not only in the fact that we work with pure Garganega, but that we’ve always done so. This isn’t a matter of stubbornness, but rather a carefully considered choice, a choice we make every day and in which we firmly believe. We’re certainly not the only ones, but we certainly believe we’re one of the specialists in this world, in the Garganega grape variety. Being known as “the Tessaris of Garganega” is very pleasing to us, so we continue to believe in this grape variety, and it seems like this is a moment when Garganega is starting to earn its due. Historically, I think it’s a good time to show everyone what Garganega can do.

Earlier, I listed the labels I’ve seen released over the years, but I didn’t mention “Era di Outgrowth“. Let’s talk a little about this new project from Cornelia Tessari.

• “Era di Outgrowth” is a new sustainability project born from this family’s knowledge and my own personal experiences with my wife, Taylor. Having had the opportunity to live for many years in Vancouver, on the Pacific Ocean, where the air quality is excellent and the ecosystem is well-balanced, one of the things that made us reflect upon returning home was the very poor air quality. As I learned more about it, I realized that this condition was also influenced by factors beyond our direct control, such as the topography of the land: since we’re located in a valley, the air is somewhat stagnant. Connected to this whole situation is also the issue of rising temperatures and climate change, which I think is now quite evident: summers are getting longer and longer, and it’s certainly not cooler than when I left over ten years ago. After researching the matter and working with a group we consulted, we realized that with methodical planting and reforestation, we could reduce our impact on CO2 emissions and consequently help keep temperatures at bay. Objectively, we can’t do it on our own, but if we do it together, if everyone does their part, it can make a difference. Once we returned home, we quietly tried to share our opinions with the winery. In terms of wine, we believed that the experimental part offered the opportunity to try and create a Soave DOC that was truly a single Geographical Unit. We therefore decided to segregate a parcel in our vineyard Costalta to create Era di Outgrowth exclusively from that area. Our wines tend to be naturally very sapid, and Era di Outgrowth is too. However, this time, from a production methodology perspective, we decided to over-ripen a grape that already grows with a southwest exposure, resulting in a fuller-bodied wine with greater concentration of aromas. We thus created a beautiful fusion between the freshness of our Soave Classico Grisela and the structure of the Soave Classico Superiore Bine Longhe.
  From the perspective of the broader sustainability project, Era di Outgrowth envisions a percentage of the proceeds from the sales of these bottles being reinvested in planting and reforestation, carried out directly on our land. We don’t purchase credits, we don’t pay anyone to offset the CO2; it’s done directly by us. It’s not close to our vineyards; we started this process behind our B&B, where it had been asphalted and concreted, so we’re giving the land back. In the various plots, as the bottles are sold, we’re also planting near the vineyards, taking care not to create problems with the ecosystem we already have in the vineyard. Where it was concreted, there’s bamboo and indigenous botanicals, which we purchase here in town. The ultimate goal is to become CO2 neutral, so we’re following this path to obtain CO2 neutral certification. We don’t want this to be just our own project; we want it to be a community project. We’re pleased to be one of the first to consider this, but we’re working with our colleagues in the area to see how we can help our region. I don’t want this to sound like a cliché; I’m speaking from the heart: for generations, we’ve been nourished by these lands, and I want my children, our children, and future generations to be able to do the same. We must all join together to make a difference, not just through planting trees, but this is one of the things we can do to get started.

However, I believe that introducing this project into the company was relatively simple, a sort of natural transition, because as a family you’ve been paying close attention to sustainability for some time: you work organically, you also have this focus on vegan production, you use renewable energy,…

• Yes, the family made it very simple; they were very open to the new project. Even the name of the bottle itself is significant in this sense: Outgrowth means “something that grows from something else.” It’s like adding a new shoot to a vine whose roots were laid by the family in previous generations; it’s a continuation of everything that’s already been done. It presents itself with a very different label, but it’s very much in line with what’s been done previously: the organic journey started ten years ago, the vegan production, which also opens doors to more customers, but above all, the attention to what we give to the land. The issue of air quality is intended to be a continuation of the sustainability discussion that began several years ago. We all know that these are not easy methodologies to maintain and sustain over time, but we believe in them and we don’t like to keep things simple. The difficulties are certainly many, but the ultimate goal is to help the soil and leave a legacy for future generations.

If we’ve piqued your interest and you’d like to learn more about the Cornelia Tessari winery, their wines, and their local projects, join one of our Soave and Amarone group tours, or email us at [email protected] to check availability on private tours. Their wines are also available in our store in Verona and online wine shop; stop by and check them out. We look forward to seeing you soon!