La Marega Marega
“La Marega” farm takes its name from the locality in which it is located, in the municipality of San Pietro In Cariano, in the center of the Valpolicella Classica area. Here, in a characteristic rural courtyard, lives and works the Allegrini family, a “historic” producer of wines for more than 50 years. The Allegrini family has been cultivating small pieces of land on their property for generations, but it was only in the 1960s that Vittorio began producing Valpolicella wine in the rural cellar located under the family home, thanks also to a “sharecropping” contract which led him to take care of the vineyards adjacent to the villa of San Micheletto and on the slope of the hill overlooking San Pietro in Cariano.
In 1967 Lorenzo, Vittorio’s son, brought the first tractor to Marega, which replaced the cows that helped in the plowing and pulling of the wagons. With sacrifices and efforts it was possible to buy the fields, previously worked by sharecroppers. It was precisely the period in which the cultivation of vines and the production of wines exploded in Valpolicella, which are now an excellence known and appreciated all over the world. Today the company is led by Daniele and Marco, Lorenzo’s sons, conscious heirs of a treasure trove of knowledge that is the result of generations of experience and a passion for the land and its products.
The vineyards owned by the family are cultivated with the traditional Veronese pergola system, and characterized by the sporadic presence of olive and cherry trees. The panoramic position allows the gaze to range from the flat areas of the lower Valpolicella, to the hilly terraces, up to the elegant lines of the Lessini Mountains. Furthermore, the eastern exposure allows the plants, the fruit and the soil to see the sun in the early morning hours. This allows, through the sudden change in temperature between day and night, a rapid drying of the nocturnal dew and an optimal condition for the sugar concentration in the grape grain. Even the soil, rich in mineral salts, clay, limestone and tuff, plays a decisive role, recalling in the wine the traditional aromas, flavors and colors of a territory in whose history viticulture has been one of the main agricultural activities since Roman antiquity.
The grapes are harvested exclusively by hand, once the fruit has reached perfect ripeness, carefully selecting the best bunches destined to the drying process for the production of Amarone. The vinification, according to the traditional method with the addition of innovations and improvements, takes place in the cellar, where the must obtained by delicate crushing of the bunches and pressing spends a few weeks in cement barrels for fermentation, which is controlled day by day. After this time, the wine, after the appropriate decanting, is refined. For the Amarone, the aging takes place for at least two years in Tonneau oak barrels, before being bottled and left to rest for a few months. All these processes ranging from harvesting to bottling are performed entirely in the same place where the company is based. The agricultural philosophy of the Allegrini’s is that of respect due to the territory, to the peasant roots of the family and to sustainable cultivation.
The care in planting the vines, the passion for farm work and the attention to the little things in every phase of winemaking, give those who taste Marega wines an experience full of emotion during which ancient and forgotten tastes are rediscovered.
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