Italy · Veneto

Bertani

Bertani is a historic Veronese producer founded in 1857 by Gaetano and Giovanni Bertani, making it one of the Veneto's oldest continuously operating wineries. The estate is the leading authority on traditional-style Amarone della Valpolicella Classico, produced exclusively from Corvina, Corvinone, Molinara, and Rondinella grapes dried on bamboo racks in the estate's Grezzana facility. Bertani holds back its Amarone Classico for an extraordinary period before release — the wine typically does not appear on the market until nine to twelve years after the harvest, reflecting the estate's commitment to a traditional style of extended cellar aging before commercial release. The 1967 and 1983 Amarone Classico are legendary benchmark bottles; more recently, the 2003, 2006, and 2009 have attracted strong critical scores. The Recioto della Valpolicella Valpantena — the sweet, port-like red produced from the same dried-grape method — is the estate's secondary market companion to Amarone. At auction, Bertani averages $295 per bottle across 230 lots with peaks reaching $2,840 — the latter driven by rare library bottles of historic Amarone vintages from the 1960s and 1970s. The $295 average confirms Bertani's position as the Veneto's most consistently traded high-value brand.