The Wines You’ll Never Forget—If You Can Find Them
A journey to Monte dei Ragni, one of the most soulful and elusive producers in Valpolicella.
Jan de Weerd - Spoken Wines
This will hide itself!
The Wines You’ll Never Forget—If You Can Find Them
A journey to Monte dei Ragni, one of the most soulful and elusive producers in Valpolicella.
High above Fumane in Valpolicella Classica, along a narrow and winding road, you’ll find Monte dei Ragni—a place so rare it resists even the idea of being found. We met two brothers farming alongside their father, making some of the rarest wines in all of Valpolicella—not for prestige, but simply because they can. For one unforgettable morning, we walked their land, shared their wine, broke bread, and glimpsed a life lived in harmony with everything around it.
The Name, the Place, the Conviction
Monte dei Ragni is more than a winery. It’s a world held together by stone terraces, ancient trees, and a family name passed down—not from the father, but from the mother: Ragni. In a culture where patriarchal lineage is the norm, this quiet detail signals everything: here, things are different. The property, mapped by Napoleon’s cartographers in the 1700s, feels untouched by time. The oldest building dates to the 1400s and once served as a watchpoint for the castle below.
Monte dei Ragni isn’t manicured—it’s alive. Of the estate’s 10 hectares, only 2.5 are planted to vine. The rest is given over to nature’s rhythm: hayfields, olive trees, gardens, goats, chickens, and in the off-season, sheep that graze the vineyard floor. The brothers call this balance—a way to support the vines by supporting everything around them.
The old Roman road we climbed winds up to a vineyard once connected to a Romanesque church. When people had no maps, they looked to the next tower to find their way. That’s what Monte dei Ragni is to us now—a kind of guidepost.
They farm biodynamically, though you won’t find it on a label.
“Why pay for certification?” they asked. “Better to invest in the land itself. What matters is what you feel when you walk through here. What you taste.”
And what we tasted was conviction.
Monte dei Ragni isn’t manicured—it’s alive
Learning by Listening and the Freedom to Make the Wine You Want
The Ragni brothers don’t proclaim expertise—they pursue understanding.
Farming here is an act of curiosity, observation, and humility. Their father, Zeno, instilled in them a belief that wine should be made with total freedom.
“It’s your wine when you do what you want, when you want,” he once told them. That freedom—grounded in nature and intuition—is their compass.
The Ragni family makes only three wines: Valpolicella Superiore, Ripasso, and Amarone. Not every year yields an Amarone—the conditions must be just right. There is no rush, no compromise. When the land speaks, they listen.
That’s why their Ripasso sells for €90, and their Amarone for over €160. It’s not just wine. It’s a moment captured. A philosophy poured into a bottle. These wines are found in Michelin-starred restaurants in Paris, yet they’re born from the simplest truths of the land.
That morning, inside their centuries-old winery, we were handed glasses of their 2020 Ripasso alongside homemade bread and olive oil. Wines like these are rarely available for tasting. But here we were—sharing them in the place they were born, with the hands that made them.
We spoke not of technique or vintage, but of cycles, balance, giving and receiving. Of being part of something—not mastering it.
That morning, inside their centuries-old winery, we were handed glasses of the 2020 Ripasso
In Praise of the Invisible
There are stories that don’t fit on a label. You won’t find them in a spec sheet or tasting note. What Monte dei Ragni offers is so much more than what’s in the glass.
Leonardo and Tomasso were endlessly generous, deeply thoughtful, and profoundly connected to their work. They see themselves not as winemakers, but as stewards—of memory, of ecology, of truth. They study how trees support vines. How birds balance ecosystems. How native grasses and flowering plants shield against disease and drought. They give to the land—and the land gives back.
In a world driven by scale, Monte dei Ragni reminds us what happens when we stay small—and go deep.
We left with a sense of stillness. A renewed belief in the purpose behind what we do.
This is why we travel. This is why we search.
This is why Spoken Wines goes beyond the bottle—to meet people like Leonardo and Tomasso, who remind us that great wine is not made, but lived.
And as we stood looking out over the hills, we felt that quiet kind of freedom.
The kind that can’t be measured—but must be tasted to be understood.
Here is a link to the website of Monte dei Ragni to learn more and perhaps a chance to chase down a bottle.
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