To Juliet?s question ?What?s in a name?? the Sartori family would answer ?Everything!? For over a century, Sartori, a leading name in fine wines from northeast Italy?s Veneto region, has stood for traditional values elevated by innovation, a dedication to quality and -- above all -- a boundless passion for quality winemaking. The family took its first step in 1898, when Pietro Sartori bought Villa Maria, a vineyard with a small cellar attached, in the heart of the Veneto region?s Valpolicella district, to assure a source of high quality wine for his hotel. This marked the advent of Sartori di Verona. A few years later, Pietro?s son, Regolo, built the winery into the family?s core business, and by the 1950s Regolo?s two sons expanded the winery and brought these wines to international recognition, exporting them around the world. Today, Andrea Sartori, Pietro?s great-grandson, is at the helm. Like his forefathers, he has taken steps to broaden the reputation of Sartori di Verona and to guarantee the quality behind it. In 2002, the company joined with Cantina Colognola, giving the family rare guaranteed access to more than 6,200 acres of high-quality grapes in the Soave and Valpolicella zones, where few wine houses control their own vineyards. In 2003, Sartori hired the renowned Franco Bernabei as consulting winemaker. His work with the winery marks a return to Bernabei?s roots: although he has lived in Tuscany for over 25 years, he is, in fact, a native son of the Veneto. Most recently, in 2006, Sartori introduced a new premium collection of Veneto wines crafted by Bernabei at its new winery, I Saltari, in the Mezzane Valley, east of Verona. The winery is named after the mercenary vineyard guardians, known in native dialect as saltari, hired by vineyard owners from the 16th through the 18th centuries to protect their grapes from thieves and bandits. With legal authority to shoot grape thieves on sight, the Saltari were ready defenders of the vineyards. The choice of the name reflects the winery?s own dedication to defending tradition and expressing these vineyards? unique terroir. A constant theme over the last century has been the Sartori family?s bond with their land: it is a heritage that has evolved and is reflected in their new interpretations of the great classical Veronese wines, as well as in their innovative expressions of traditional varietals.
