Annafrancesca is a very young company, but one that has its roots in the dream of our visionary grandfather half a century earlier, who saw a potential invisible to most on his land.
We would never have thought of linking our lives to the land, having already taken very different paths, but the passion was already unconsciously flowing in our blood which just needed to mature and find a way to come out into the open.
Once we had overcome the first effort of learning a job as hard as it was new, it only took a few years to transform ourselves, from the sole production of grapes to the production of our own wine, welcoming people in our vineyard and in our wineshop.
It is our story and that of a vineyard and the wines that bear our name, at the same time full of grandfather Battista’s spirit.
Our Story
The vineyards are located in Legnago, on the plain south of Verona. In the beginning the dimension consisted of just under three hectares of Merlot and Pinot Grigio, both planted half a century before the birth of ANNAFRANCESCA and cultivated by grandfather Angelo (known as Battista) and father Giovanni, not for business but for pure passion for the countryside; in fact, both practiced different professions, spending every moment of free time among the vines.
With our choice as the sisters Anna and Francesca to leave our careers and transform this family hobby into a profession, in 2013 the size of the vineyard was increased by 36 thousand new vines of Pinot Grigio and Moscato Giallo, giving life to the wine-growing family business. The initial project consisted of only producing grapes to be sold to other wineries. In this way, grandfather and father’s dream of seeing their land transformed into a beautiful vineyard as far as the eye could see came true.
The choice to become a certified organic company came a few years later, however from day one we have adopted sustainable viticulture practices with low environmental impact, such as mechanical weeding rather than chemical weeding as well as organic treatments, more out of personal conscience than market need. Thanks to the large quantity of water that surrounds the Annafrancesca estate, which the vines can freely use, we do not practice mechanical irrigation.
In the first two years of work in the vineyard, physically hard but very satisfying, we learned the most innovative vine cultivation techniques and experienced how fundamental upstream work is to produce quality grapes, which will prove fundamental in the production of quality wine.
In 2022 we made another step towards sustainability, planting PIWI grapes: a variety of grapes that needs a small amount of treatments due its natural resistance to diseases.