06/13/2025
We are happy to share with you all that our own Stefano Rossi from Casaretti has been featured in the Wine Spectator article from June 10th "Italy's Next Summer Red? It just might be Bardolino"
Stefano is without any doubt the young enologist star of Bardolino/La Rocca with his innovative techniques in the wine making process, that make his Bardolino a Burgundian style one as highlighted by Robert Camuto in his article.
“In the last 30 years, we lost the focus of making quality Bardolino,” says Stefano Rossi, 39, of Casaretti, whose family has been growing and bottling wines on the lakeside’s gentle hills for three generations. The winery currently makes 5,000 cases a year. “Now there’s a bit of a return by those who have the courage to make quality wines and to ask for an adequate price for them.”
In recent years, Rossi, an enologist, has been experimenting with different methods, including Burgundy-inspired whole-cluster fermentation in conical oak casks for Casaretti’s La Rocca bottling.
Even the most carefully made Bardolino wines remain bargains. Stateside, few of them top $25 at retail. But what’s in the bottle is changing.
A new generation of grower-producers like Rossi has reduced vineyard yields, focused on old Corvina vineyards, and is experimenting to bring out the most in their wines.
They are also focusing on terroirs, as laid out in Bardolino’s 2018 division into three growing subzones: the lakefront La Rocca, with a mild, Mediterranean climate; cooler and rainier Montebaldo in the alpine foothills; and hotter, more continental Sommacampagna, in the southeastern part of the appellation.
Link in bio for the full article and in stories.
