Leo Nardin 1923

The Nardin winery was set up by Giovanni Nardin, the founder of the family, in the early Twenties. The Nardin family has been devoted to vine growing and wine-making for generations. In the early 19th century, it was already producing wine as sharecroppers for the Venetian Counts Papadopoli. At the end of the First World War, the young but resourceful Giovanni decided to purchase some of the land

...cultivated by his family and succeeded in buying the most valuable part, the one planted with vines. Thanks to his dedication and hard work, it took him only a few years to fulfil his dream and start selling his own wine, the Raboso. At that time, winemaking was carried out according to traditions jealously guarded by local wine-making families. The only vine varieties known were those native to the area. Giovanni’s enterprise was successful: he expanded his property in the following years and bought more land and goods, thus securing a position in the family business to each of his six children. As the years went by, Giovanni’s fourth son, Leo, began to show the very same passion for wine his father had and started devoting himself exclusively to wine-making. It all began in the fifties, when major technological innovations and experimentation were reshaping the sector. Leo spared no efforts to modernize the traditional production method, carried out by hand. He introduced new machinery and equipment to ensure more efficient winemaking procedures and a safer yield control throughout the production. Yet, he remained faithful to the core spirit and reliability that have always marked his family business. The company was given its current name when Giovanni passed the torch on to Leo. It has been constantly progressing ever since, thanks to a relentless research on new and better wine-making methods and constant experimentation of new vines, to find new subtle or strong flavours. At the same time, it has been striving to enhance the great value and specificities of each local vine variety. Along with the family business so dear to his father’s heart, Leo also inherited the family house, where he lived with his family. Living so close to the company’s vineyards couldn’t help but shape his children’s future. So, it came as no surprise that Stefano developed an early passion for wine and vineyards and decided to deepen his knowledge about wine throughout his studies. He graduated as oenologist from the prestigious “Cerletti” Oenological School in Conegliano Veneto (Treviso) and fully applied his skills and expertise in the family business. There he worked hand in hand with his sisters, each one with their specific task. This is our cherished company’s history, which is a source of infinite pride to us. The business is still family-run: the winemaking involves all family members and is carried out with minute care and fatherly affection. We have expressly decided to remain a family business to preserve our strong link to the land and local rural traditions. This is why we only make wine from our own grapes, so that we can carefully follow their growth from the flowering to full ripeness and decide freely when the time has come to harvest them. The picking is strictly carried out by hand, not to bruise a single grape, because it is essential to us that the grapes remain perfectly intact after the harvest and that they are crushed right away, within maximum 3 hours. The grapes are subject to low-impact phytosanitary treatments, to respect the environment and nature’s rhythms. They are handled with great care, gently crushed and processed at stable temperatures to preserve their typical flavour and nose. Such non-invasive methods allow us to make wines that boast an invariably simple and soft flavour in the mouth. Our wine is rich yet easy pleasant to drink, perfectly combining the best Veneto traditions with the most innovative winemaking and monitoring techniques. Stefano’s sons, Marco and Fabrizio, have both specialized in oenology and are currently working in the company. The younger generation has already made its first steps in the business, yet old traditions and past experience will not be lost, because all family members have one thing in common: the very same passion for wine.