At the St. Regis Venice special guest was the Bertani winery, the only Valpolicella winery to possess a library of 48 vintages spanning six decades, starting with the first on the market and ending with 2013.
The elegant touch of modernity—that’s how we sum up what St. Regis Hotel means for Venice. It is an icon that is Venetian as it gets: relaxing pastels frame art masterpieces in its large, welcoming halls, keeping up a sense of intimacy and warmth that makes you feel at home. But a few days ago, one March night, in-house Gio’s Restaurant held a verticale wine-tasting dinner centred on Amarone. Nothing commonplace, at all. Wine was supplied by Bertani, the only winemakers in the Valpolicella region – home of the Amarone – that can provide forty-eight vintages spanning over six decades ending with the 2013 one, which will be marketed later this year. Food was the purview of chef Giuseppe Ricci and his kitchen brigade. Bertani winemakers was established in 1857 after Gaetano Bertani, once co-owner with his brother Giovan Battista, spent a few years in Burgundy to learn the art. Ever since, professionalism and passion guided their production and made kings of aged vintages. Every bottle is a time capsule, the liquid embodiment of the history of a parcel of land. One might expect the word of an expert to finish up, but I shall venture into a closing note myself with nothing but an invitation to an instinctive, primordial, emotional approach to a sip of history, and let your mind wander to a different time, think about the way we were, and allow the exhilarating beauty of winemaking in.
