Collection: Corteforte

The current  Valpolicella  is a complex and fascinating land, characterized by the cultivation of the vine .  
Typical of its landscape are the dry stone walls that frame the paths and support the cultivations on terraces called, in the local dialect, "marogne" .    
The area is a few kilometers from the city of  Verona  and is bounded to the south by the bends of the  Adige river  and to the north by the  Lessini mountains . To the west lies  Garda , the largest Italian lake, which with its mild and temperate climate favors the cultivation of the vine, but also of the olive and cherry trees.
Inhabited since the Palaeolithic age, Valpolicella has a strong historical-cultural identity, given above all by the presence of a population of Rhaetian-Etruscan origin, the Arusnati. 

Conquered by the Romans around the 2nd century BC, it was established in an autonomous administrative district called "Pagus arusnatium", mainly aimed at the cultivation of vines and the production of wine considered to be of excellent quality: hence the name by which it is known today: Valpolicella . that is Valle ( Val) with many (poles) cellars ( cellae ).     
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Valpolicella underwent numerous barbarian invasions, regaining its independence only in the Middle Ages, thanks to the treaty signed by Federico della Scala in 1313, which defined the boundaries and legal form of the "County of Valpolicella".
Tranquility and administrative autonomy were also maintained under the subsequent rule of the Serenissima and until the eighteenth century. This allowed the political stability of the territory and its agricultural reorganization, with the consolidation of the cultivation of the vine, the signs of which remain visible even today.

Corteforte  was built, in the early 1400s, in a strategic point of the Fumane valley, district of " Osan"  (Voxius). It originally consisted of four side towers connected by a high stone boundary wall and represented an important defensive garrison against raids from the north.

In 1600 the structure became the property of an important Veronese family, who transformed it into a noble country residence. It was thus refined with decorations and enlarged with the construction of cottages. Of the four original ones, only one crenellated tower remains today .  At the end of the eighties Corteforte was converted into a cellar and agritourism .    

The  vinification cellar,  housed in a rustic annex with controlled temperature, allows the wines to ferment and mature in steel tanks before a long  aging in tonneaux and French oak barrels , with capacities from 5 to 25 hl.
The original  cellar is still present under the ancient buildings , used for the refinement of bottled wines .