The Azienda AgricolaTrabucchi winery is located in Val d'Illasi , to the east of Verona, straddling the areas of Valpolicella and Soave. The 21 hectares of vineyard, 4 hectares of olive groves and no less than 400 cypress trees, adorn and safeguard the Colle di San Colombano and are in an enviable position, towering over the town of Illasi together with the majestic Della Scala Castle and standing over 200 metres above sea level. The company is composed of an historic Veronese villa and three wine-making cellars: the first was built at the same time as the 19 th century villa, the second in the 1990s, while the third, which is the largest and most modern, was completed in 2003. The latter is constructed on three floors built completely underground and is connected to the cellar built in the 1990s by a tunnel. Above ground there is a thriving vineyard, and thus the beauty of the landscape and natural environment of the area have been safeguarded.
The winery is equipped with all the instruments needed to carry out the grape processing phases and exploits the gravitational 'cascade' method (thanks to the structure of the winery). The stainless steel vats allow for perfect temperature control during the fermentation of the grapes. At the ageing and finishing stage, a large number of oak barriques and barrels of different type and capacity are used to enhance the aroma and flavour of the wines. There are six drying lofts, all built so as to best 'capture' the breezes that blow through the hills, thereby ensuring the perfect partial-drying of the grapes.
The basic laboratory built inside the winery is used by our expert cellar man and by our oenologist to carry out analyses of the ph, sugars and acidity of the grapes in various parts of the vineyard to check their ripeness. A careful reading of these data indicates the right time for the harvest, bearing in mind the fact that the grapes have to undergo the partial-drying process. The cellar man also uses the lab instruments to track the development of the fermentation process and the subsequent evolution of the wines during ageing.
Rigorous checking of the vine-shoots and buds and the limited yields combined with the natural processes of grape-drying and fermentation and carefully measured ageing in oak barrels has enabled the company to produce premium quality wines; to date they are amongst the most ambitious expression of the corvina , corvinone , rondinella , croatina and oseleta grape varietals.
The company has a total surface area of approximately 25 hectares, divided into 21 hectares of vineyard and 4 hectares of olive groves, made all the prettier by the presence of 400 cypress trees, horse chestnut trees and rose bushes.
The company is sub-divided into five separate units called Monte Tenda (itself subdived into Dandarin and Casale), Binelunghe, S. Colombano, Castello and Cereolo di Sopra (divided into Bivio, Campagnina and Fungara) with altitudes ranging from 140m asl for Cereolo di Sopra to 290m asl for Castello .
This distinction is made for reasons of podology and geographical exposure because in fact the first three holdings are clustered as a single productive unit.