Massimago

Tucked into the hidden folds of the Mezzane Valley, in the eastern reaches of Valpolicella, Massimago takes its name from the Latin Maximum Agium — “maximum well-being.” It’s a fitting name for an estate that has spent over 140 years rooted in this quiet corner of the Veneto, surrounded by woods and vineyards just northeast of Verona.

The Cracco family has owned this land since 1883, but for four generations it remained a private countryside residence — grapes grown, sold, never bottled under its own name. That changed in 2003, when Camilla Rossi Chauvenet, granddaughter of the family and a trained agronomist, took over her mother’s vineyards and decided to build a winery from nothing. She started in a garage. She sold her car to afford a tractor. Her first vintage, in 2004, yielded just 1,000 bottles.

Two decades later, Massimago is recognized as one of the finest producers in Valpolicella — organic since 2008, certified since 2014, with biodynamic principles woven throughout the vineyard and cellar. Camilla farms only her own grapes, vinifying the classic varieties of the region — Corvina, Rondinella, and Molinara — into wines that honor tradition while speaking with a distinctly contemporary voice: brilliant, drinkable, structured, and full of perfume.

The estate produces the full arc of Valpolicella’s great styles: elegant Valpolicella, the richer Ripasso, structured Valpolicella Superiore, and the powerful, dried-grape Amarone della Valpolicella — aged in Massimago’s own hilltop fruttaio, a drying loft built from recycled wood and engineered for the slow, careful passage of air that transforms fresh grapes into something extraordinary.