Fact Sheet

[SPER-REE]

Location: Pedemonte Valpolicella, Province of Verona. Veneto, Italy.

Valpolicella Classico is a hilly nook within northern Italy’s Veneto region, covering one fifth of the entire Valpolicella DOC and corresponding to just five communes. Wedged between the Adige river and the Alps mountain range, it constitutes the appellation’s historical core: select, elevated terrain on the Alpine foothills, enjoying a temperate climate you would not expect at this northerly latitude. The Speri’s presence in this heartland of fine winemaking goes back to 1874, though the original homestead and cellars are even older, built in 1580. From generation to generation for well over a century, this grass-roots family has handed down a heritage of authenticity and passion for the soil and its fruits. Handed down, as, literally, every grape going into a Speri wine is estate-owned and estate-grown, and is personally sculpted by the Speris with just as much pride in the craft of viniculture, the manual, hard-working side to it, as in its art.

The Speri family has always put the vineyard first, and through the years, purchased over 148 acres in the finest Classico districts: Fumane, Negrar, and San Pietro in Cariano. These are divided into distinct crus comprising La Roverina (24 acres), Sant’Urbano (50 acres), and more recently, La Roggia (a little over 24 acres). Throughout the property, the native vines of Corvina Veronese, Rondinella, Corvinone, Molinara, and others are planted with a much higher density than the appellation’s average. This naturally means they yield small crops of excellent concentration, fine-tuned in the state-of-the-art new winery that was completed in 2002. In the words of one of the Speri brothers, Carlo (P.R./administration), “The Speris are a clan.” He is flanked by vineyardist Gianpietro, winemaker Alberto, marketing manager Gianpaolo, and the ever present young Luca and Chiara, Carlo’s son and daughter. All of them Speri: a shining example of Italy’s most authentic, ancient, successful business philosophy: keep it in the family.