Ca' La Bionda, Valpolicella Classico

For many Italy-focused sommeliers, writers and serious drinkers I know, Ca’ La Bionda has become almost synonymous with contemporary Valpolicella. It is difficult to tell the story of the region’s last quarter-century without giving a starting role to Ca’ La BIonda owner-winemaker Alessandro Castellani. Castellani argued for balance, freshness, transparency and emphasizing terroir over oak and alcohol long before those ideas became fashionable in this region. During the 1990s and 2000s, when much of Valpolicella seemed locked in an arms race toward appassimento, alcohol, sweetness and increasingly dark, concentrated fruit, Alessandro pursued almost the opposite ideal: native grapes, fresh fruit, savory complexity, moderate alcohol and the finesse of a great hillside red. Today, an exciting generation of producers has pushed Valpolicella back toward elegance, but Ca’ La Bionda established the blueprint. This beautiful 12% alcohol 2024 Classico distills that philosophy into its simplest form. For anyone who loves cool-vintage village Burgundy, stoney Loire Cabernet Franc or the finer, more transparent expressions of Ribeira Sacra Mencía, this bottle is essential drinking.

The Castellani family’s history in Marano di Valpolicella reaches back to 1902, when Pietro Castellani founded Ca’ La Bionda in the heart of the original Classico zone. Today the fourth generation runs the estate, with Alessandro responsible for winemaking and his brother Nicola overseeing the vineyards. Their 29 hectares lie entirely on the hillsides around Marano, between roughly 150 and 300 meters, and the estate has been certified organic since 2016. Alessandro’s importance, however, goes beyond farming. In 1998, he made the then-unfashionable decision to dedicate the CasalVegri vineyard to serious Valpolicella Superiore made entirely from fresh grapes rather than treating Valpolicella as the lesser sibling of Amarone. His conviction was simple but consequential: Corvina and the hills of Marano possessed enough character to make profound wine without dehydration or concentration. A quarter-century later, that idea feels remarkably prescient.

The basic Valpolicella Classico is perhaps the clearest expression of that philosophy because almost nothing stands between the vineyard and the glass. The fruit comes from Ca’ La Bionda’s hillside vineyards in the Marano valley, where calcareous clay soils are riddled with stones and rock. The blend is 70% Corvina, 20% Corvinone and 10% Rondinella and Molinara, preserving the latter at a time when many estates have marginalized this traditional local variety. Fermentation takes place entirely in stainless steel, with a brief seven-day maceration followed by roughly five months of élevage. No appassimento, no ripasso, no new oak and no attempt to inflate the wine into something grander than it is. The result is Valpolicella in its most elemental form: pale, fragrant, savory, brisk and wonderfully alive.

Serve the 2024 around 58°F in a Burgundy stem. The color is a beautifully transparent ruby, followed by aromas of sour cherry, wild strawberry and red currant, with violet, dried herbs, orange peel, pepper and a faint stony note underneath. The palate is light on its feet but not slight, with crunchy red fruit, bright acidity and delicate tannins providing just enough resistance to keep everything taut. At only 12% alcohol, there is a wonderful sense of freedom to the wine. Nothing is sweet, heavy or extracted; instead, the finish becomes increasingly savory, with tart cranberry, herbs, citrus peel and mineral notes lingering after the fruit recedes. Pastissada de Caval is one of Verona’s great old dishes: horse meat slowly braised in red wine with onions, tomato and warming spices, traditionally served with polenta. Against something so dark, slow-cooked and deeply savory, this is precisely the kind of red you want. The acidity cuts through the richness, tart cherry fruit brightens the braise, and the wine’s peppery, herbal character mirrors the spices in the sauce. More importantly, the contrast captures what makes modern Valpolicella so exciting: profoundly regional food accompanied not by a massive red, but by one of northern Italy’s most graceful ones.