The Costaripa winery was founded in 1928 in Moniga del Garda, on the shores of the lake of the same name. Since then, the winery has always put the enhancement of its territory at the centre of its thinking, activating a production of exclusively high-quality wines.
October 9th – Moniga del Garda (Brescia) ITALY 9th october 2023 – It was in 1928 that grandfather Mattia Vezzola embarked on the winemaking business in Moniga del Garda, purchasing the first vineyards in the area where the company now stands and seeking to restore importance to an area naturally suited to rosé. It was then that the first dedicated rosé wine ‘Chiaretto di Moniga’ was born using the ancient ‘submerged cap’ technique. The second Vezzola generation, sons Bruno and Franco, continued the qualitative research of both viticulture and enology of the then acclaimed rosé wine. To the young Mattia (third generation), his father Bruno suggested that he begin an enological path. So, in 1972, having just graduated from Conegliano, he found himself in Champagne: “an enlightening journey,” he declares. This began his passion for the world of sparkling wine and a philosophy that emphasises the importance, even in this world, of making wines that are extremely complex, refined, elegant and long-lived as well. “Effervescence has always been considered a futility in the world of enology; on the contrary, I consider it a very serious, complex and fascinating thing” he says.
The company’s philosophy is based on the search for the maximum expression of the territory and grape variety, with a focus on environmental sustainability and the protection of biodiversity. One man’s experience, passion and philosophy can break time-honored prejudices, so winemaker Mattia Vezzola has reinterpreted the sensory profile of Valtènesi Rosé, Lake Garda’s most noble and representative wine, making it unique and contemporary.
The combination of traditional experience and contemporary technology in the early 1980s gave birth to ‘RosaMara’, a rosé wine with fruity notes and an exotic, persuasive bouquet. The evolution that Costaripa has undergone over the years is undoubtedly the result of the inspiration of visionary enologist Mattia Vezzola, who is also the company’s owner. In the 1990s, his subversive character and unwillingness to compromise led him to embark on an avant-garde path: associate the value of time with a Rosé wine: thus Molmenti was born, a rosé wine with a longevity of 10-15 years. The name is a tribute to Senator Pompeo Gherardo Molmenti who is credited with the creation, in 1896 in Moniga, of the first Italian Rosé from dedicated viticulture.
The vines of Costaripa grow in a hilly area of morainic origin, in the heart of the Valtènesi, stretching from north to south between the municipalities of Desenzano and Salò, in the morainic amphitheatre facing east on the Brescia side of Lake Garda. The hills are gentle, occasionally interrupted by small flat areas. This is an area whose climate is mitigated by its proximity to the lake, a kind of Mediterranean enclave close to the Pre-Alps: a sun-kissed land, characterised by light morning and evening breezes and a sub-Mediterranean microclimate. “Valtènesi,” says Mattia Vezzola, “includes more than 60 types of soil, which have always given our wines harmony, aromatic complexity and an extraordinarily light texture supported by an unusual and persistent savouriness.”
The Valtènesi includes two areas once identified as: “Riviera dei Castelli” and “Riviera dei Limoni” signifying the presence of seven medieval castles and at the same time the northernmost point in the world suitable for citrus cultivation. Twenty kilometres of coastline exposed to the sunrise and bathed by 370 square kilometres of water with a minimum winter temperature of 7°C, with a very slow water change of 28 years. A land kissed by 3000 hours of sunshine a year with morning and evening breezes.
Moniga in 1896 identifies the starting point in Italy of the “Vinification in Rosé” giving birth then, and in a few years, to the birth of 12 wineries as well as to a lifestyle dedicated to the enhancement and defense of this magical land; a land created to teach men to enjoy the beautiful things in life.
