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Michelangelo is said to have remarked that the fewer ideas we have, the less willing we are to change them. Perhaps that is what sets Ottella apart. The winery began when someone saw the value in an idea and gave it room to grow.
An open-minded lover of art turned an idea into something tangible. It all began with Lodovico Montresor, who loved his land and cared for the farm he had inherited from his father and grandfather.
The family was the first in the province of Verona to make wine and the only one in the area to produce Lugana.
The estate is in Lugana, a beautiful area stretching south of Lake Garda to the Morainic Hills.
The area has many stories. One of them belongs to Lodovico Montresor and his family. It was here that the idea took shape. The name Ottella recalls a story of eight children born together in the sixteenth century. The estate has been a place of work and life ever since.
The history and art of Ottella Winery
That is how the Ottella story began and continued, from grandfather to son and then to grandson.
The estate now covers 90 hectares in Lugana and another 20 in Valpolicella.
The winery has focused on elegant, refined wines while retaining its own identity.
The idea became a reality and evolved with the times, with quality as its guiding principle.
The awards Ottella has received are testament to that work.
Winemaking is an art, and the Montresor family has honoured Lodovico’s ideas by establishing the Ottella For Gam contemporary art prize at Art Verona.
The winery’s architecture reflects the same approach. Wine sits alongside paintings, sculpture and a range of colours and shades.
What the winery set out to achieve
The Montresor family set out to produce distinctive, high-quality wines while respecting the soil and the grape variety. This is the approach they have taken with Trebbiano di Lugana, known locally as Turbiana.
The same approach applies to the Valley of the Gods, where the grapes for Valpolicella are grown.
It is a story of places and people who had the imagination and conviction to keep going.
To borrow a thought from Leonardo da Vinci, happy are those born where good wine is made.
