In February 2024, Italy’s renowned Dal Forno estate, famous for its Valpolicella and Amarone red wines that are much sought-after by wine lovers and collectors all over the world, bought the Trabucchi winery. Trabucchi is an historical Veneto producer of Valpolicella and Amarone wines, and just like Dal Forno, it is also located in the Val d’Illasi portion of the extended Valpolicella denomination. After much discussion, Dal Forno was able to buy both the Trabucchi brand and about nine hectares of vineyards.

The acquisition was some time coming: in fact, the Dal Forno family had been helping follow the viticulture and vinification at Trabucchi already prior to the Covid pandemic. However, it was only after the latter resolved that the Dal Forno family was able to physically take over the viticultural and winemaking duties: they began with vineyards they were already renting long-term, with the long-term view that they might one day take over the whole estate. However, as things were proceeding too slowly relative to their one day taking over, the Dal Forno family decided to proceed ahead and founded its own new brand called Comaroto, of which Trabucchi will become a part of. The name “Comaroto” derives from the Italian word comare: comaroto was actually the nickname of Michele and Luca Dal Forno’s grandfather Ernesto, because in the early twentieth century (on June 23 1923, to be precise)the then King of Italy Vittorio Emanuele III awarded Erminia Danzi, Ernesto’s mother, the diploma to practice as a midwife, a job referred to in the local dialect as being “comare”.

Michele Dal Forno told me that for the time being, the initial goal is to keep the Comaroto and Trabucchi brands separate in an effort to give value to the different wines. In time however, Trabucchi could become the second-line wines of the new Comaroto brand of wines, which now boasts the nine hectares just acquired plus two more hectares of rented vines (so eleven hectares in total).

The new company setup sees Marco Dal Forno remaining at Dal Forno, while Michele and Luca Dal Forno (the latter is the winemaker at Comaroto/Trabucchi). Even though they are under the same ownership, the two brands, Dal Forno and Comaroto/Trabucchi, are characterized by different wines. For example, the Valpolicella of each is very different indeed: at Comaroto they have chosen to go back to Romano Dal Forno’s original vinification techniques, or in toher words to proceed as he used to do when he was beginning. That is, with the use of only a small percentage of raisined grapes, as compared to the Dal Forno Valpolicella wine of today that is made with 100% air-dried (raisined) grapes. Clearly, the idea is to make a Valpolicella that is easier to drink, lower in alcohol (Michele and Luca’s first vintage clocks in at only only 13.5%) and food-friendlie avoiding the extreme concentrations of the Dal Forno wines. In other words, it is a valpolicella that is not meant to be an “Amaroncino” or a baby-Amarone, as far too many such wines have unfortunately become nowadays. Rather, the Comaroto/Trabucchi Valpolicella wine represents a return to their family roots. And if you can believe the irony, Michele tells me that with their new Trabucchi ownership the Dal Forno winery now owns once again 3000 square meters of vines that once used to belong to Michele’s grandfather Ernesto, a vineyard plot that is the core source of the grapes for the Comaroto/Trabucchi Valpolicella. The=is Valpolicella’s blend  of grapes is made up mostly of Corvinone, Corvina and Croatina (this is 70% the fresh base grape load, ie. non-raisined grapes), while the rest of the grapes are raisined/air-dried. This latter, smaller, portion of grapes also includes other varieties than those previously mentioned and that make up the backbone of the blend: essentially all the typical ones of the Valpolicella area are found in this remaining 20-30%). Clearly, as the vines date back to 1960, there’s plenty of rare grape varieties in the mix, such as Spigamonti (a grape variety that is undergoing a revival of sorts just like Oseleta did twenty years ago), Forselina, and even a few Sagrantino vines, if you can believe that!. But the wines from Dal Forno and Comaroto/Trabucchi differ for more than just vinification method (ie. percentage of air-dried grapes) or number and types of grape varieties (to be or not to be Spigamonti, for example);  the cultivation and training methods differ too. For example, at Comaroto/Trabucchi, the Oseleta grapes are canopy-like trained, which is something practically nobody has ever seen before (this is especially interesting, because Oseleta, when canopy-trained, has a totally different behavior and expression, and its wine too, compared to when it is cordon-spur or guyot-trained). Last but not least, the wines of Dal Forno and Comaroto/Trabucchi differ also on their aging method: only tonneaux are used (for two years) at Comaroto/Trabucchi, while at Dal Forno only barriques are de rigueur (though very interestingly, I point out that while at first at dal Forno they aged the Valpolicella for three years in oak, they have nowadays also reduced to two years the maturing process of their Dal Forno Valpolicella). The origin of the oak is the same, though Luca has experimented with less toasted oak barrels (this applies especially to the Amarone).

By contrast, when it comes to the Amarones of the two wineries, the differences are not so cut and dried. This is mostly because the grape blends of the two wines are similar and the raisining-time period is virtually the same as well (and not for an especially long period, roughly only about two months, finishing their air-drying around the end of November). And so, in the case of the Amarones, what changes most is the terroir: Dal Forno’s vines are planted at about 300-450 meters above sea level, while at Comaroto the vines are lower down, roughly from at an altitude of 100-220 meters asl. The soil is also different: at dal Forno the soil is mostly gravel (especially higher up) and calcareous marl, at Trabucchi there is much more gravel but with less limestone, but with veins of volcanic tuff and basalt.

The skinny is that the 2021 Valpolicella and the 2021 Amarone will be the first vintages made by Michele. The Valpolicella was bottled this year, but will go on sale either in 2025 or 2026. The Amarone will go on sale one year later, and in fact maybe both will be released in 2026 only (the 2013 and 2015 Trabucchi Amarone are currently the ones on sale -none was made in 14- but those are not Michele and Luca dal Forno wines, or at least not totally so). Therefore, you need to arm yourself with a little patience, given the immense talent that Michele and Luca are endowed with, before being able to sink your teeth into what promise to be totally new and exceptionally great Italian red wines. For those mathematically-inclined, I just point out that the plan is, for now, to make about 8,000 bottles/year of Valpolicella, and about 4,000-5,000 of Amarone.

Last but not least, another interesting bit of news is that Luca and Michele also want to make a classically dry white wine, somewhat like a Soave, but this last year was too difficult weather-wise so they opted against doing so. But they own a few rows of Garganega and hope to make their first white wine next year. Who knows, in the future they may even be open to producing a good roséand bubbly wine with the vastly underrated Molinara grape variety that really deserves to make a comeback. Time will tell, but I and all other wine lovers are eagerly awaiting the new creations from the super-talented, passionate Dal Forno family. Forza Michele and Luca, wine lovers all over the world are in your corner and eagerly awaiting your new creations!