Our family’s winemaking tradition dates back to the beginning of the 1700s, when our ancestor, Bernardo Caprara, moved to Sommacampagna to open the Osteria del Sole in the courtyard where our winery is located today. His customers made their way to the mills on the Adige to grind grain and stopped here because they knew they would find good food and excellent wine. Over time, the Caprara’s business expanded to wine sales and in the early 1900s, it became a real company exporting fruit and wine to Germany.
In the 1950s, my father Adelino purchased the villa and the small farm belonging to the Medici di Gavardo counts in Custoza. And in the 1960s, he became one of the vineyard masters breathing life into the renowned Bianco di Custoza, the exclusive product of prized vineyards in the area.
Jumping forward 30 years to the end of the century, the winery took on the name Villa Medici and it was turned over to me. I was trained as an architect, but the passion I inherited from my father has grown year after year, harvest after harvest, finally becoming my primary activity.
I’m a bit of a perfectionist and I never tire of working in the vineyard and winery. For me, this activity is a continuous challenge, because I am convinced that what counts, more than words, is what you put in the bottle.
Wine is reborn every year and it is up to the people creating it to honour it.
My wife Paola deals with the organization and interacts with customers and co-workers. She is the one who knows when to draw a line under each list of figures.
Then there is my daughter Silvia, a recent graduate in chemical engineering, who is finally a constant presence, participating with positive energy and great curiosity in all the winery’s activities, as she prepares to build the future of the business.
The backdrop of the natural theatre where we live and work consists of the moraine hills of Lake Garda, a beautiful land caressed by the gentle breeze from the lake.
These are very soft hills, a natural oasis lapped by waters of the lake and stretching out like a promontory towards the Po Valley.
