Tenuta Sant'Antonio Soave Vecchie Vigne 2018

Passion, enthusiasm, business skills and experience. Four qualities for four brothers: Armando, Tiziano, Massimo and Paolo Castagnedi. A passion originated in the family vineyards when, as children, they lived in San Zeno di Colognola ai Colli countryside, an area of the extended Valpolicella region which produces the most famous Verona wines from Amarone, Valpolicella to Soave. The grapes produced by their fa ther Antonio in those days were sent to the Colognola ai Colli Cantina sociale (cooperative wine-grower's association), founded by Castegnedi himself. Armando, Tiziano, Massimo and Paolo, the Tenuta Sant'Antonio estate actual owners dedicate themselves with enormous enthusiasm to rural life by working "in the field" with sacrifice and love. Working together they soon began to experience all the various stages and roles of their father’s affairs. Their keen business sense soon led them to take a new and alternative path that, over time, proved to be useful to wide the foundations of a company that now boasts significant national and international recognition. Forerunners of their time, the Castagnedi brothers actually worked for years as technical consultants for the cooperative nurseries of Rauscedo,reating new "key in hand" systems throughout Italy and gaining such experience as to urge them to make the fundamental decision. In 1989 they decided to buy thirty hectares of land around Mezzane, which, added to the twenty original ones belonging to their father, increased the Tenuta Sant'Antonio vineyards to a total fifty hectares. And this was the turning point. The Castagnedi brothers decided to produce their own wine by becoming vinedressers, true advocates of quality and extreme professionalism. "These days speaking of quality, of taking care of the vine branch by branch, of ac curate and manual selection of the bunches, of low yield per plant, of careful attention when washing the grapes from their being picked to their arrival in the cellar and being bottled, of patiently wait ing for the wine to mature in new wooden barrels, of its refinement in bottles all goes without saying….but these were rules we embraced over fifteen years ago. In those days this vine culture did not exist and people thought we were crazy! Obvi ously the painstaking work we put on requires time and professionalism and it involves high labor costs. Nevertheless, from the very beginning our business philosophy has exclusively been aimed to quality, not just in words but in deeds, and therefore we sacrifice the figures in its honor. And so, if as the French saying goes, good wine is obtained in proportion to one vine to one bottle, at the Tenuta Sant'Antonio we do even better with two vines to one bottle!". Our clients deserve the best so, for example, we sacrificed the 2001 Amarone because of its weakness. It was a very difficult decision with big loss but it went along with our mission. One company, one story about men. From a family of four brothers we have a brand that is a sure bet for quality and prestige because Tenuta Sant'Antonio, with loving dedication and sophisticated technology, takes care of the manual work involved throughout the entire life of the grape, from the seed to the bottle, in order to cre ate that little, fantastic alchemic wine miracle which is pure nectar for the gods.