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The Corte San Benedetto Farm is located in Arbizzano di Negrar in the ancient rural court from which it took its name. Around the end of 1800 the Lavarini family gave up their properties in the mountains of Lessinia moving to a small town located in the hills of Marano di Valpolicella called “Camporal”, where they started the cultivation of the few grapevines then existing.
 At first, the little wine produced was for the family and local consumption but when, in the second war, the demand for wine began to grow, Angelo, with the help of his children, began to give structure to the farming business in order to satisfy a wider market.
Converting the entire farming business towards a mono-cultivation production was innovative at that time. Up until then, in fact, each farming business included all that was needed for a family’s daily needs.
Credit is given to Angelo for his brilliant intuition to convert the farm business targeting the production of just two crops: grapes and cherries.
To the vineyards existing on that land from the beginning of the century he added many others, experimenting and selecting various varietal qualities with different rootstocks (at that time the clones we know today did not exist). The field in front of the house became an actual nursery and each year they grafted different qualities coming from different areas of Valpolicella.
Next to Angelo’s strong passion for grapevines was another: cherries.
 Soon, an experimental field for cherries was created in the small-lost town of Marano, where diseases of cherries were studied in collaboration with the agriculture inspector of Verona.
Carrying out a simple treatment using regular verderame (a copper-based fungicide/pesticide) on a part of his cherry trees in the wintertime, Angelo noticed that on treated plants, the flowers dried out drastically less during blooming and thus production was ensured.
Up until then that point, the cause of the disease that prevented production in particular years was believed to be due to the cold or to an unfavourable climate.
The next year he decided to try the experiment again and the results were the same as the previous year: he discovered a disease called “monilia” (a mould that dries out flowers), and the way to cure it.
Distinguished professors of the time participated in the studies. For example Dr. Rui and Dr. Mori, who closely followed the development of the experiments giving good advice but……. the discovery really belongs to a farmer in the hills of a little town in Valpolicella.
When evening came, at the end of each meeting, candles were lit (there was still no electricity) and they would go downstairs to the tiny stone faced cellar where no one would come out without first having sipped a drop of Recioto or Amarone wine accompanied by some pisota (a very simple homemade cake) or a bite of bread and salami.
It became almost a ritual, and today is a memory for all those people (and there are many) that in those years as scholars, customers or friends crossed the threshold and were immersed in the almost unreal atmosphere that wine, a gift from the grape, has the power to bring alive.
Label used by Angelo in 1950
Angelo 3rd Recioto prize in 1961 |
At first, the little wine produced was for the family and local consumption but when, in the second war, the demand for wine began to grow, Angelo, with the help of his children, began to give structure to the farming business in order to satisfy a wider market.
Soon, an experimental field for cherries was created in the small-lost town of Marano, where diseases of cherries were studied in collaboration with the agriculture inspector of Verona.
