Dear Guests, the staff of Cantine Giacomo Montresor is very pleased to welcome you to Our Museum.
Alongside this itinerary we will take you through our history, our traditions and our values, to let you live an unforgettable sensory experience.
We decided to dedicate this first room to the most important landmarks of our history and to the context in which it developed in the city of Verona.
Everything starts in the long-gone 17th century, when Montresor family, after leaving France, settles down in Verona in the countryside of Bussolengo. On your right you see a reproduction of the most ancient document proving the presence of the Montresor’s’ in our territory and their work as vine growers.
The history of Cantine Giacomo Montresor gets underway more than two centuries later, in a very transformed historical and cultural context. In the second half of the 19 th century the industrial revolution
deeply changes the aspect and the role of Verona and with the construction of the station Verona Porta Vescovo the city becomes an important commercial intersection in Northern Italy.
Veronese wines start to become famous even beyond the Alps and in 1873 they are presented for the first time at Wien’s World’s Fair.
Giacomo Montresor decides in those years to open a tavern in via XX settembre, an important street connecting Porta Vescovo station to the city center. The facility hosts in the basement a small laboratory for the vinification and the bottling and on the ground floor, on the main street, the tavern where the wines are served to the public.
1892 is the year setting forth the birth of Cantine Giacomo Montresor, when Gaetano Montresor purchases a small wine cellar in the countryside west of the city and decides to name it after his son Giacomo. These are difficult years for the plantation of the vine because the vine growers must face phylloxera, a root parasite that at that time caused the uprooting of over a half of the hectares in our province.
Despite the difficulties the company is successful and in 1910 it is among the first Veronese companies to join Confindustria. In those years in Verona the first opera season is inaugurated, a tradition which made this city famous in the entire world.
At the end of the first world war, pushed by Italian emigrants in North America, the demand for Veronese wines grows overseas. This is a huge opportunity for Giacomo and he will take it on as a pioneer by designing a light bottle, recalling the typical shape of the wicker wine bottle and which can protect the wine during the long ocean crossing: it is 1921 and the first Satinata bottle (glazed bottle) is born, which today is a symbol of our company.
The business grows and Giacomo Montresor decides to buy a large plot at the gateway to Valpolicella, where in 1930 he would build the Winery where you are right now. The new facility is larger and better equipped, with a large concrete vat area and an underground wine cellar for the most precious wines.
During tragic years of World War II, the Winery, in a strategic location for the defense of Brenner railway line, was occupied by the German army and all production activity was suspended.
In 1946, after the Liberation, everything changes: in Italy the Referendum sanctions the end of the monarchy and the birth of the Republic. Cantine Giacomo Montresor restarts as well, led by the founder's son, Bruno Montresor. In the same year the first bottle of Amarone's precursor, Recioto Rustego Montresor, is also produced.
In the 1950s the company experiences a really booming period thanks to the development of innovative oenological projects: for example, a new product aimed mainly towards young people is born: the Montresor Aperitif known as Rosso del Cuore and precursor of the spritz, a blend composed of wine, oranges, absinthe, rhubarb, and cinchona.
In 1958 Bruno Montresor is appointed Commendatore by President of Italian Republic, Mister Gronchi, thanks to the various institutional roles held and to the leadership of a company that at the time employed more than 100 people.
During the years of economic boom, Verona, like many other cities in Italy, undergoes a considerable urban development, and so our headquarters, once located in the countryside, is embedded within the urban fabric.
The constant growth of wine production in Italy, and in Verona, the city with the largest number of vine- grown hectares in the peninsula, leads to the establishment of the first trade show dedicated to this sector: it is 1967 and Vinitaly takes its first steps. Cantine Giacomo Montresor has been participating since the first edition and therefore in 2016 it is awarded, among very few other Italian wineries, for its 50th
participation. In those years, the Winery's wines portfolio reflects the heterogeneity that our territory and installed technologies allow: from the most identifiable Amarone della Valpolicella, to still and sparkling wines. The company continues with its success story until 2018, when Terre Cevico acquires stockholdings in the company and becomes an ambassador for the legacy of Cantine Giacomo Montresor around the world with Montresor Heritage project.
