The History

Wines since 1936

Luigi Brunelli – vine grower, winemaker and craftsman – creates, with his own hands and with the help of his family, fine products of incomparable character and quality. Luigi is convinced that each of his wines tells a story: a story of pleasure and of unique fascination and emotions. The Brunelli wines seduce and transport you with their mellowness and their harmony into a world of strong emotions and even of trepidation, where they tell of strength, of flavour and of the fruits of the earth and of the vine as it grows.

This thought is part of the estate’s identity, who is deeply influenced by the will to remain faithful to the values who always tied the generations of the Brunelli family together and that represented its guidelines from the beginning.

The Origins

The Brunelli family has its ancient roots in the 18th century. Three brothers living in Valpolicella begun farming – as sharecroppers – the fields and lands belonging to a noble family of Verona which owned, besides the master’ villa, a farm surrounding an horseshoe-shaped courtyard known with the name of Corte Cariano, where they could live in exchange for work.

The first bottles

The three brothers farmed their fields around the courtyard without owning them, dedicating their life to the production of corn and crops and training horses and cattle. They started, little by little, to produce Recioto and Valpolicella wines, destining as per contract half of the whole product to the lord and owner of the lands.

The wine produced in small quantity was used at first just into the family, until a bishop visiting San Pietro made them aware of the goodness of their product. The wine was starting to be known in the local villages and districts.

A dream came true

At the beginning of the 20^th century, after decades of hard work and sacrifices, the Brunelli family redeemed all the lands they used to take care of, becoming independent owners of them to all intents and purposes.

In 1936, the great-grandfather Angelo decided to stop farming, just to be completely focused on the production of fine wines, founding the estate the same year.

Working hard with his wife Stella, Angelo became known a few years later in all Verona, as a “master in producing Recioto with vineyards located in the flatland”.

Subsistence farming was the daily rule, and the only vineyard of the Brunelli family was called Pariondo, since the shape of the vineyard was almost perfectly round.

The Birth of Amarone

After the Second World War, Angelo passed responsibility of the winery to his son Giuseppe, who revealed to have an innate attitude to the production and the commerce of wines made of indigenous grapes, also thanks to the firm support of his wife Gaetana, a sweet and caring – yet strong and determined women and mother.

Commitment and hard work were the daily rules as part of the effort to achieve success. The full production of the wine started to be bottled, representing a countertrend in comparison to most wineries, which used to sell mostly bulk wine.

The first bottle of “Recioto Amaro”, today known as “Amarone”, was produced.

Luigi & Luciana

In 1975 Luigi Brunelli takes over the reins of the winery from his father. After some years he gets married with Luciana, the daughter of a passionate vine-grower of Custoza in love with the white varieties.

The couple shares a great sensitivity and respect for the land and their winemaking roots from the first moment. Luigi and Luciana support investments in some among the highest parcels of the Classic area, reaching the altitude of 420 meters where, after selecting the grapes separately, they produce for the first time the two single vineyards of the Estate: Campo Inferi and Campo del Titari.

The former identifies a steep and almost inaccessible vineyard, characterized by a very stony soil, which provides an intriguing minerality, as well as making the way to the vineyard an adventure. Therefore, the first years this was the last vineyard to be harvested, giving in turn very ripe and sweet bunches of grape, and an extraordinary wine.

The latter – Campo del Titari – owes its name to the family historical stallion with whom Luigi played, when he was a young boy. The horse did always run in the highest parcel, the most alone from the other vineyards. Years later, in 1996, when Luigi decided to vinify this specific vineyard separately from the other parcels, he suddenly had the memory about the characteristics that this wine and the horse had in common. Not just grace and power, but also the colour intensity, like Titari’s shiny black mantle, the vivacity like his impenetrable eyes, a particular combination of aromas like tobacco and leather, like the horse saddle. Many elements, which brought again to Luigi the memory of his beloved horse.

Over time, Luigi decided to refine delicately the Campo Inferi to mirror the gentle traits and the elegance of his wife Luciana, and to reflect his forthright, determined and enigmatic character, in Campo del Titari.

The fourth generation

In 2005, with their son Alberto working at full time in the winery, the winery expands the ageing cellar and the drying loft. Corte Cariano undergoes a deep restoration to obtain an agriturismo with four rooms and apartments and a wine shop, which reflect a particularly thoughtful attention to the original raw materials and atmospheres.

Respect for tradition, balanced by a particularly attitude to attentive innovation is today one of the inspiring values of the Brunelli family.