-MAI DIRE MAI, THE PIONEERING AMARONE PROJECT BY PASQUA WINES, AT THE CENTRE OF THE NEVER SAY NEVER INTERNATIONAL MASTERCLASS LED BY JEFF PORTER, WRITER AT LARGE OF WINE ENTHUSIAST
As part of the programme of activities promoted during Vinitaly, the Verona-based winery – in collaboration with the prestigious wine magazine – organized a vertical tasting of its most representative Icon at Gallerie Mercatali.
A project so innovative that it has become a case study even overseas.
On 3 April, in the Gallerie Mercatali space in Verona, Jeff Porter, writer at large of Wine Enthusiast – one of the most prestigious wine magazines in the world – talked about the genesis and success of Mai Dire Mai, the most powerful and radical expression among the different interpretations of Amarone signed by the Veronese winery together with the CEO of Pasqua Wines Riccardo Pasqua, the President of Pasqua USA Alessandro Pasqua, the winery’s oenologist Carlo Olivari and the technical manager Giovanni Nordera.
At the centre of the Never Say Never international masterclass was the Montevegro vineyard, whose 23 hectares quality: position (between Val d’Illasi, Val di Mezzane and with the Lessini mountains at the back), esposure – on all fronts – and conformation, with soil of basaltic and calcareous origin that guarantees optimal minerality.
To enhance the extraordinary peculiarities of this vineyard, Pasqua Wines has chosen a new direction for the winemaking style, more austere and vertical, which gives the wines elegance, complexity and uniqueness of taste.
The unconventional inspiration of the Veronese winery was thus illustrated both through the have the perfect characteristics for generating wines of great narration of the terroir and a vertical tasting involving the Mai Dire Mai vintages currently on the market: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015.
To close the tasting, Fear No Dark, the new wine project of Pasqua Wines, whose grapes (cabernet sauvignon and oseleta) are cultivated in a single parcel of 5.1 hectares, located in the most secluded part of the Montevegro property, facing north-east. This parcel, which is the shadiest, coolest and most exposed to the winds coming from the Lessini mountains, ranges over two large cliffs, overlooked by a hill that creates different areas of shade, resulting in different ripening times between the two areas. With Fear No Dark Pasqua Wines metaphorically challenges the darkness, the symbol of the unexplored, and continues its innovation journey, towards an oenological future to be defined, without fear of challenges and comparisons. The new icon of the Mai Dire Mai universe is positioned between Amarone and Valpolicella, in the ultra-premium segment.