What is the most important wine in the Valpolicella of Italy?

Most would answer “Amarone.”

But in 2023, one of the most important wines to emerge from the Valpolicella came out for the first time.

And it’s not another Amarone.

San Michele della Chiesa is part discovery, part history, and an idea.

The Ugolini Family Estate has some of the most historical vineyards in the Valpolicella Classica. Their single vineyard called San Michele is named after the medieval church that sits on top of the hillside vineyard.

The San Michele single vineyard hangs on a hill made of a volcanic tufo slab which gives birth to a sophisticated Valpolicella Superiore single vineyard wine. The tufo in the soil gives the wine high acidity worthy of aging and a rare minerality that’s not found in the commercial versions. The rows of vines are supported by these stone walls called “marogne” that were built by the Romans. The Ugolini Family hired the most skilled stone masons to restore them.

The stone walls protect the vineyard from washing away from rain. The walls also collect heat, even in the winter, which keeps the soils healthy and in balance.

While they were making the San Michele single vineyard wine, they discovered that one parcel, when vinified by itself, was evolving into an extraordinary wine with super complexity and aging potential. This parcel sits on the top of the San Michele hill and is the closest parcel to the church. It contains just 8 rows of vines.

This was an amazing discovery and completely unexpected. So they decided to make a completely separate wine called “San Michele della Chiesa,” or “St. Michael of the Church,” named after the protector of the Catholic Faith. They aged the wine for 10 years in the estate cellar and the 2013 vintage has finally been released for consumption.

If you decant this wine for 2 hours, the feeling will arise that you’re sipping on an Amarone without appassimento, the air-drying of grapes.

Only 964 bottles were handcrafted and each bottle is individually numbered. Contact us for availability and pricing.

A Letter From the Ugolini Family Estate:

This wine originates from vines aligned where the ancient garden of the little church of San Michele, wrapped and protected as if in a clos, a type of French vineyard.

It is said that the monk guardians of the parish church of San Michele chose this very spot to cultivate their vines and produce precious wines to give to their superior, the Abbot of the monastery of San Zeno, now the patronal Basilica of the city of Verona. The choice of this site, not adjacent to the church but on the opposite side of the hill, testifies to the monks’ agronomic knowledge: the tufaceous soil and south-eastern exposure allow the fruit to ripen well, resulting in a fresh, savory wine with a strong territorial imprint. It was true then and true now.

As custodians of this thousand-year history, we vinify our grapes with a non-invasive oenological practice such as that of Valpolicella Superiore, to capture the essence of the tufo of the San Michele hill.

As you sip a glass of our San Michele della Chiesa, you will find yourself as if by magic among the rows of the old garden, in a ‘genius loci’ where the earth and the sun hand down its thousand-year history, and where your eyes are refreshed by the enchanting view of our Valley Fumane.

TECHNICAL DATA:

• Owner: Tenute Ugolini
• Estate Bottled and Produced
• Production Area: Fumane Valley – Valpolicella Classica
• Single Vineyard: Vigna Colle San Michele in the Fumane Valley of the Valpolicella Classica
• Grape varieties: Corvina Gentile,
  Corvina Grossa, Rondinella and
  Oseleta
• Soil: Tufo
• Hectares of vineyards: 3.87
• Altitude: 230 meters
• Exposure: South/East
• Age of vines: 30
• Training system: Veronese
  vertical-trellis
• Planting density: 6,250 plants/ha
• Yield per hectare: 70 q/ha
• Harvest period: October
• Fermentation: in custom barrique from Allier French Forest
• Refinement: 10 years of aging in glass bottle in estate cellar
• Drawing off percentage: 15%
• Acquired alcohol: 14.2%
• Total acidity: 5.16 g/l
• Dry extract: 33.2 g/l
• pH: 3.52
• SERVICE: We recommend uncorking
  one hour beforehand and pouring
  into balloon glasses at cellar
  temperature (15-18° C)
• AGEING POTENTIAL: 15-20 years
• Production: 694 bottles per annum