The doors that open and lead into a new era: for Valpolicella and for one of its most historic faces. It is called Monteleone21 and it is much more than a simple winery, the new “home” of Masi Agricola. In the heart of Valpolicella Classica, a few minutes from Verona and Lake Garda, the multifunctional space that today welcomes the public for a true immersion in the universe of wine, and much more, is unique in concept and offering. We asked Mister Amarone, Sandro Boscaini, president of Masi, to tell us what this new stage in the history of a family that has celebrated over 250 harvests represents.
When was the idea for the Monteleone21 project born?
It was a long journey that led to the official opening of Monteleone21 to the public today. A journey not without obstacles. In fact, it is an investment planned shortly before Covid-19, with the works that subsequently suffered a series of obvious delays, linked to the dynamics of the period. But today the new production-wine tourism-experiential center is there and can be visited.
With this new structure, in fact, we go beyond the classic concept of involving the public in how wine is made: we offer them a real Agora, where wine is alive, between meetings, exhibitions and immersive experiences. With a multimedia Auditorium and other internal and external environments designed to be multifunctional and welcoming, Monteleone21 will be the ideal setting for memorable institutional, corporate and private events in one of the most evocative landscapes in Italy.
At Locanda Costasera, Masi’s Venetian and international soul takes shape in a fusion gastronomic proposal with recipes inspired by local tradition, but also by the extensive experience gained in elevating our wines through pairing them with cuisines from the five continents.
Can we say that talking about a winery is reductive in this case?
The need to have a multifunctional space arises from a study, promoted in collaboration with the Iulm University and the University of St. Gallen, which revealed to us the strategic importance of Valpolicella in terms of wine tourism: we are, in fact, in an area that is a crossroads between Lake Garda, which has 18 million visitors per year, and Verona, which adds another 5 million or so visitors. In essence, we are talking about the most attractive destination in Veneto, after Venice, and among the main ones in Italy. Thus, we understood that right here was the ideal place to give life to something capable of enhancing wine, but through an original and different vision compared to the past, which impacts the induced effects it generates and the positioning of the offer of our territory.
How does the new Monteleone21 building fit into the Valpolicella landscape?
The great impact in terms of related industries corresponds to a minimal impact on the landscape and environment. Two thirds of the Monteleone21 structure are, in fact, underground. Ours was not a classic expansion of the winery spaces, but of the functions connected to wine. The area dedicated to the Appassimento Fruit Storage, for example, is a 12-meter-high room equipped in a modern way while retaining traditional materials, such as the bamboo canes in the arele: it is something majestic, which arises not from a strict necessity but from the desire to unify the 13 sites that we already owned and which will remain operational only in the case of single vineyards.
Then there is the Agorà, a meeting and welcoming space: a spectacular circular square of over 1,000 square meters, topped by a coffered concrete ceiling, an architectural masterpiece, where, in addition to being able to shop at the Enoteca Masi, you can taste or live new experiences. I am thinking of those related to mixology: another demonstration of how wine is changing its skin and how much it is necessary to stay up to date on what is the approach of an increasingly varied public.
Compared to other areas, such as Tuscany, in your opinion, what has prevented wine tourism from expressing its full potential in Valpolicella?
Today, in wine, in general, and in Valpolicella, specifically, we need to think with a broader and more articulated vision as our horizon. A case like that of wine tourism in Tuscany, which has always been a driving force for the region, is the result of a synergy in which a fairytale landscape is supported by the presence of renowned wineries.
In our case, Valpolicella is only partly the attraction factor: visitors come to the area first of all for Lake Garda, and then are surprised by the beauty, less known to the general public, of our hills. Today, however, the wine tourism offer is still limited to just visiting the production site and subsequently tasting one or more iconic labels: it is no longer sufficient in the face of the expectations of a visitor who has many interests and expectations beyond wine.
Today it is necessary to excite people, involve them with your story. It is no coincidence that the Monteleone21 project has represented a cornerstone of the celebrations of the 250th grape harvest of the Boscaini family.
With Monteleone21 are we talking about a Masi Wine Experience that is 2.0?
Monteleone21 is undoubtedly an evolution of the Masi Wine Experience, which was the first experience of its kind in Valpolicella to open in 1991 at Possessioni Serego Alighieri, with the guesthouse and other meeting spaces. What we want to offer today is a different emotion that also comes from the architecture, which does not replicate peasant styles but uses local materials, with Nembro stone extracted 3 km from the site, to cover the structure and embellish it.
Today, if there is a limit in Valpolicella, with Amarone at the forefront, it is that we have not sufficiently valorized our productions for what their real quality is: this work also comes from a positioning that must today be the result of a different story, in the name of premiumization and healthy exclusivity, like what Monteleone21 now offers.
How can Monteleone21 help attract and train a new generation of wine lovers?
How to attract a new generation of consumers is a pressing issue for the world of wine today. We, even in designing the Monteleone21 experiences, started from the assumption that young people should be addressed with a different proposal and stimuli, with a horizon of growth and education in consumption as a reference. The theme of mixology mentioned above fits exactly into this groove, just like the offer of more traditional productions, see the case of our Fresco di Masi, organic and 100% sustainable. Wine needs a stimulus of contemporaneity and internationality: here, in Valpolicella Classica, today we are trying to offer it with Monteleone21.
In your daily life, how do you apply the concept of sustainability within the new spaces?
What we call sustainability today has always been part of Masi’s DNA. One fact highlights this: we never exceed 250 harvests by chance. But digging into our family history, I discovered how, on this topic, my grandfather had already traced the route that we still follow today. He wrote in his papers: “In nature, at a human pace”. This applies to every aspect of that sustainability which must be, at the same time, environmental, economic and social.
Once again, the Monteleone21 project is further evidence of a legacy that is carried forward, evolving in the wake of important decisions we have made, such as the latest in 2024 to transform Masi into a Benefit Company. It is a seriousness in the choices and in the daily operations that is magnificently told by the thousand innovations that define the new structures.
From day one, Monteleone21 was designed to reduce the environmental impact to a minimum. Thus, the building uses cutting-edge architectural solutions, such as the use of local materials and natural ventilation, and is powered by renewable energy, including geothermal energy and photovoltaic panels. Then there is the roof garden, which retains rainwater and reduces overheating, one of the many measures that aim to obtain the Leed (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, ed.) Gold certification.
Ultimately, does the Monteleone21 project represent another symbol of that Venetian Civilization whose enhancement is particularly dear to you?
Monteleone21 contains the future of Made in Italy craftsmanship, capable of designing locally but thinking globally. This is demonstrated by the contemporary and sustainable architectural language, with the distinctive signs of the building that integrate respectfully with the territory, becoming its expression. If the choice of materials was not casual, the person who dreamed and conceived the original project of the complex is also “native”: Libero Cecchini, the late and famous Italian architect of the post-war period.
Supporting the realization of the idea was the architect Alessandro Beghini, a careful connoisseur of the Valpolicella landscape, then the hand of the Venetian studio, specialized in tourist, museum and educational structures, led by Giovanna Mar: leading exponents of that Venetian “know-how” that brought a refined contemporaneity to the building, both stylistic and functional, making it exactly what we wanted it to be, that is, the home of Amarone and wine.
