There are handprints on the label. They are the point.
Valpolicella made by two people on a terrace of little stones. Not the cheap one, not the enormous one. The one they drink themselves.
- GrapeCorvina · Corvinone · Rondinella
- GrowerMonte Dall'Ora
- PlaceCastelrotto, Valpolicella · Italy
- Organic since2006
You have probably met the other two.
Valpolicella usually reaches people in one of two shapes. Either a thin red from a supermarket shelf, or Amarone — huge, dried-grape, expensive, the kind of wine that ends an evening rather than accompanies one.
This is the third shape, and it is the one people in Valpolicella actually drink at dinner. Light, fresh, sour-cherry, made to go with food and to be finished.
So if your reaction to the word is a small shrug, that is fair, and this bottle is the argument against it.
Two people, one abandoned vineyard, thirty years.
Carlo Venturini and Alessandra Zantedeschi started Monte Dall’Ora in 1995 on a ridge near Castelrotto, in the Classico heart of Valpolicella. They took on a vineyard that had been abandoned and terraced it back into use.
By 2006 they were farming biodynamically. The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered — nothing taken out to make it look tidier in the glass.
Saseti means little stones, after the limestone the roots have to push through. The blend is led by Corvina, with Corvinone, Rondinella, and small amounts of Molinara and Oseleta — the old local varieties, in the old local proportions.
And the label really is covered in handprints, pressed on in purple. It is a small, unfussy way of saying that two named people made this, which happens to be true.
Sour cherry against tomato. It is almost cheating.
The dominant note is sour cherry, with a herbal, slightly bitter finish. That is a very specific kind of acidity, and it happens to be the exact thing that tomato wants next to it.
It is light enough not to flatten a Margherita and structured enough to keep up with sausage, olives or a pizza that has been given a hard time.
If you order one red for a table of people eating different pizzas, this is the safest bottle on the shelf — not because it is bland, but because it agrees with almost everything.
The north of Italy, on a Neapolitan list.
Naples and Valpolicella are about as far apart as Italy gets without leaving the mainland — eight hundred kilometres and two entirely different ideas about dinner.
A Neapolitan pizzeria has no particular obligation to pour wine from the Veneto. This one does because Daniele buys what he likes rather than what matches the flag on the door.
Come and meet the third Valpolicella.
Order it with a Margherita and see how little effort it takes. This is the everyday bottle from a region famous for its special-occasion one. We stop at a hundred pizzas a day — the earlier you come, the better your chances.
The things people actually ask.
Q.What is Valpolicella Classico?
Valpolicella Classico is a red wine from the historic core of the Valpolicella zone north of Verona in the Veneto, Italy. It is based on the Corvina grape with Corvinone, Rondinella and others, and in its everyday form it is a light, fresh red with sour-cherry character — distinct from Amarone, which is made from dried grapes and is much heavier.
Q.Who makes Saseti?
Saseti is made by Monte Dall’Ora, founded in 1995 by Carlo Venturini and Alessandra Zantedeschi on a ridge near Castelrotto in Valpolicella Classico, Italy. The estate has farmed biodynamically since 2006 and bottles the wine unfined and unfiltered.
Q.What does Saseti mean?
Saseti means "little stones" in local dialect. It refers to the limestone stones in the terraced vineyard the vines are rooted in.
Q.Where can I drink biodynamic Italian wine in Larnaca?
Filomena Pizzeria Napoletana, at 1 Aristotelous in Larnaca, Cyprus, pours a short list of natural and biodynamic wines from small growers, including Monte Dall’Ora’s Saseti Valpolicella Classico, alongside Neapolitan pizza. It is open Tuesday to Sunday, 6pm to 10pm.