Attention to every detail in the search for an avant-garde result and experience matured over time combine in identifying as far as possible criteria that make the difference between what is acceptable and what, rightly, is better and excellent.
These are the convictions and conditions underlying our “Mithas” concept for Amarone and Valpolicella wines. Quantities vary from year to year – and are often not even available.
Valpolicella Mithas is made using the grapes grown in the “Macie” vineyards in the northern and western parts of the company estates. They stand at about 350 metres above sea level and enjoy total exposure to sunlight. All our grapes have organic certification and in recent years the vineyards have been managed on the basis of bio-dynamic agriculture principles.
These vineyards – the first in the area planted with the Guyot system – were the true starting point for Corte Sant’Alda by focusing on “quality” Valpolicella when this wine (with few exceptions) was largely synonymous with quantity/price.
The vineyards are planted in stony, chalky and shallow terrain – mostly with Corvina and Corvina Grossa
grapes – with 4500 plants/hectare. When fully ripe, these grapes ensure impressive individuality, concentration and richness.
The harvest always takes place at the end of October when the grapes are well ripened – and when the Autumn temperature range means that fermentation in oak vats – without adding yeasts – can continue for more than 20 days without any other temperature control. The wine is bottled after about 2 years of refinement and maturing, essentially in somewhat aged 5 hl. barrels.
Mithas Valpolicella, thanks to the radical decisions taken in the vineyards and in the cellar, for the first time some years ago identified the character and focal theme of our land – its minerals, accompanied by spices and pepper with a subtle, yet firm and very persistent after-taste. These characteristics are accentuated in years with less rainfall.
