-Pasqua Wines Hosts Exclusive Seminar “Multi-vintage Blends as the Past and Future of Wine” at Vinitaly 2025

The year 2025 marks a major milestone in Pasqua Wines’ rich history as the Verona-based winery, renowned for its iconic and award-winning wines, celebrates its 100th anniversary. Among the many events marking Pasqua’s centennial year, the winery hosted the seminar “Multi-Vintage Blends: The Past and Future of Wine” at the 57th edition of Vinitaly, held in Verona from April 6-9, 2025.

Led by esteemed wine educator Filippo Bartolotta, the seminar featured an insightful discussion with Riccardo Pasqua, CEO of Pasqua Wines, and Robert Joseph, journalist and co-owner of K’AVSHIRI, alongside a distinguished panel of industry leaders who joined remotely: Gonzalo Iturriga de Juan, Head Winemaker at Vega Sicilia, Brett Jackson, Head Winemaker at Valdivieso, and Chris Howell, Head Winemaker at Cain Vineyard and Winery.

The panellists explored how blending multiple vintages can create wines that offer harmony, a profound expression of terroir, and enhanced aging potential. While typically associated with Champagne and sparkling wines, multi-vintage blending remains a relatively rare practice in still wines, making this seminar a unique opportunity to experience standout examples from around the world. Each producer shared insights on the inception of their wine, its creation and launch, the origins of the multi-vintage blend, and the impact of this technique on the final wine.

Among Pasqua’s Icons, no wine better exemplifies the winery’s groundbreaking approach to viticulture and winemaking than “Hey French You Could Have Made This But You Didn’t.” As Italy’s first multi-vintage white wine, this bold and pioneering blend has established a new benchmark for Italian winemaking. Carefully selected for their expressiveness and elegance, each vintage was vinified individually before being masterfully blended to capture the essence of both terroir and Pasqua’s signature style. Now in its fourth edition, it is composed primarily of Garganega, known for its acidity and aging potential, with smaller proportions of Pinot Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc.

Alongside two editions of Hey French (the third and fourth), the seminar also showcased a prestigious selection of internationally acclaimed multi-vintage wines, including:
Vega Sicilia Unico Reserva Especial – 2025 Realese
Valdivieso Caballo Loco N°21
NV18 Cain Cuvée
K’AVSHIRI White Assemblage
Louis Roederer Collection 245

“These first 100 years have shaped Pasqua Wines into what we are today – a winery driven by vision, creativity, and an unwavering pursuit of excellence. We’re proud of how far we’ve come, but even more excited for what’s ahead,” says Riccardo Pasqua, CEO of Pasqua Wines. “Sharing this stage with such a group of esteemed winemakers is both an honour and a testament to the uniqueness of our projects and the passion we bring to them every day, as we continue to respect tradition while pushing the boundaries of innovation.”

The seminar underscored Pasqua Wines’ deep-rooted commitment to innovation as a core value, brought to life through its visionary approach to winemaking. The winery’s pioneering spirit, epitomized by wines like Hey French, reflects an ongoing dedication to pushing boundaries while honouring the distinct expression of the terroir. More than a technical discussion, the concept of multi-vintage wines raises a broader philosophical question for the wine industry, sparking a conversation about their value and the recognition they deserve. Once a common practice, multi-vintage winemaking is making a comeback as more wineries embrace its ability to capture the essence of the terroir and its craftsmanship. At the same time, this approach offers a way to address the challenges of climate change, which has affected both grape cultivation and production methods in recent years. By bringing together leading voices in the industry, Pasqua has opened a dialogue on the role, applications, and future of multi-vintage wines.

Bios:

Filippo Bartolotta
Wine journalist contributor for Decanter Magazine since 2002, his writing has appeared regularly on the Drink Business since 2020. Filippo is a wine educator and a public speaker at heart, hosting several Wine Academies on Italian wines and many collectors events.   

Riccardo Pasqua
Pasqua Wines CEO since 2015. He began his career with Pasqua in 2007 and was appointed Sales Director in 2014, a role he still holds today. He was head of operations in the United States before being appointed to lead the company.

Robert Joseph
Associate editor of Meininger’s International, is founder of the International Wine Challenge and a multi-award-winning former wine critic and author. He co-created le Grand Noir, one of France’s best-selling brands in the US, 20 years ago, and recently launched K’AVSHIRI with Vladimer Kublashvili as an innovative wine venture in Georgia. 

Gonzalo Iturriga de Juan

An agricultural engineer from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Gonzalo Iturriaga specialized in oenology at the E.N.S.A. in Montpellier. He began his professional career at a family winery in Ribera del Duero and was appointed technical director of Bodegas Habla. Before joining TEMPOS Vega Sicilia, he worked as an export manager at Lamothe-Abiet. In 2015, he took over the technical direction of TEMPOS Vega Sicilia, committed to respecting the philosophy and quality of the house and consolidating the personalities of the regions and wines that make up this family of wineries: Bodegas Vega Sicilia (in Ribera de Duero), Bodegas y Viñedos Alión (in Ribera de Duero), Bodegas y Viñedos Pintia (in the Toro designation of origin), Bodegas Benjamin de Rothschild & Vega Sicilia Macán (in the Rioja DOCa), and Bodegas Oremus (in the Tokaj region of Hungary). 

Brett Jackson
Head Winemaker at Viña Valdivieso. He arrived in 2001, after working with renowned wineries in France, United States, New Zealand and South Africa.

Chris Howell
A native of Seattle, Chris fell in love with wine in Washington State, then studied viticulture and enology in France (Montpellier & Bordeaux). He has spent the past 40 years in Napa & Sonoma, most recently at Cain Vineyard & Winery- where he has worked since 1990- exploring the connections between wine growing and terroir.

 

About Pasqua Wines

PASQUA VIGNETI E CANTINE, founded in 1925, is a historic Veronese wine company owned by the Pasqua family and celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2025. The company is internationally recognized as a producer and ambassador of prestigious wines from Italy’s Veneto region. With a century of winemaking expertise, Pasqua looks to the future with a renewed stylistic vision that blends tradition and innovation. Today, President Umberto Pasqua leads the company alongside his sons: Riccardo Pasqua, CEO Pasqua Wines, and Alessandro Pasqua, President of Pasqua USA. With the introduction of the Pasqua House of the Unconventional manifesto, today the company aims to be a laboratory of innovation and dialogue, where quality and creativity take center stage.

 

For further information:

Press Office – Pasqua Vigneti e Cantine

Tel.+39 045 8432111

press@pasqua.it www.pasqua.it