Beauty awakens the soul to act.  Dante

This is our first day at MARMOMACC, the global exposition of architecture and design in stone, where all of our classroom work is conducted. The program is intense and highly stimulating in spite of our serious jet lag and enchanting host parties that entertained us, long into every evening.

After classes, we board the bus for transfer to the Serego Alighieri vineyard and winery. The pastoral setting at dusk is entered along a gravel road, many of the grapes still hanging on the vines about 30 ft. to the left of us; the historic 1300s estate and cellar, to the right. The harvest had just begun the day we arrived.

Dante Alighieri was condemned to exile for two years, and ordered to pay a large fine. He did not pay the fine, in part because he believed he was not guilty, and in part because all his assets in Florence had been seized. He was then condemned to perpetual exile and could not return to Florence or invite a burning at the stake, so he spent several years of his exile in Verona. His son, Pietro, came to love the beauty of the city and its countryside, and so decided to remain in the area, purchasing the Casal dei Ronchi in the heart of the historic Valpolicella region in 1353. Twenty generations later, both house and estate still belong to Dante’s direct descendants, the Counts of Serego Alighieri. Today, the Villa stands surrounded by Valpolicella vineyards, the centre of traditional farming activities associated with a large and flourishing estate.

The Dante Alighieri Vineyard

The Alighieri vineyard, in collaboration with Masi, produces all main Valpolicella wines, especially an excellent Amarone that, after two years aging in French oak barrels, spends another four months in cherry wood barrels. According to some theories the name Valpolicella might come from the latin words “valle poli cellae“, valley of many cellars, demonstrating the ancient wine making tradition of the area.

Not surprisingly, Verona, with the important role it had in Roman age, has a very old tradition in vine growing and wine making. In a letter of the 5th Century, Cassiodorus, minister of Theodoric the Great, the barbaric king of the Osthrogots who made his kingdom in Italy and Verona one of its capital, recommended to the barbaric king of the Osthrogots that he try the sweet wine produced in the territory around Verona. In prizing the excellence of the wine he also explained how the wine, both in a white and red version, was made with grapes left to dry until winter before being squeezed. After more than 1600 years, in Valpolicella and Soavesimilar wines are still made by drying grapes for four months after harvest.

Modern Valpolicella is made from corvina, molinara, and rondinella grapes. Corvina, in Italian means “crow like”, the name comes from the intense black color of the bunch. Molinara means “baker” for the white, powder like surface of the grapes, which looks like flour. Rondinella means “little swallow”, because of the split leaves of the vine which somehow resemble the tail of a swallow. Valpolicella can be a fruity, medium-weight red wine. It can have a light cherry flavor, with licorice hints and slightly bitter finish. It is normally drunk relatively young, within 3 years. It goes well with light dishes – pork, lamb, eggplant in red sauce. The architects tour of the quarry ends with a wine tasting and 4-course dinner hosted by Stone World Magazine in the main dining room of the Alighieri-Masi winery.