When our guests ask us how to enrich their holiday with a unique experience, we always have the right answer to give, proposing activities and excursions that reflect their tastes and help them to better discover an extraordinary territory such as Lake Garda.

Collaborating with various partners in the area allows us to take the Enjoy Garda Hotel beyond the confines of Peschiera and make known the wonderful realities that contribute every day to making Made in Italy a symbol to be proud of. One of these trusted partners is the agricultural holding Corte Quaiara, located in San Giorgio in Salici, just 15 minutes from us. Here our guests have the opportunity to taste the best wines of the Morenic Hills and above all to see for themselves what it means to be a winemaker nowadays.

The gentle Morainic Hills

Before unveiling the secrets of Corte Quaiara, let’s find out more about the area where its vineyards grow and live and why it is worth visiting. The Morainic Hills extend between the southern shore of Lake Garda and the Mantuan plain, enclosed by the River Mincio to the east and the River Chiese to the west. It is in this area that a natural area with landscapes of great beauty and suggestion opens up to the eyes, subject to environmental constraint, as well as being of considerable public interest thanks to the small villages, castles, historic buildings and forts that tell its history and that of those who lived there.

The Morainic Hills are characterised by gentle contours that alternate in a game of hollows and reliefs, with fragments of mirrors of spring water in memory of the ancient and enormous glacier that thousands of years ago modelled the forms of this enchanting habitat. Lush forests, crops and vineyards cover these green hills crowned with cypress trees, giving the accumulation of debris left over the various geological eras a unique appearance.
And it is in this place of timeless charm that the Garda wine tradition originates, giving us year after year wines of great value and unmistakable taste. Like those of Corte Quaiara.

Discovering Corte Quaiara

To get to know a reality there is nothing better than listening to – in this case reading – the words of those who founded it and live it every day. That’s why we thought we’d do a short interview with Giovanni Montresor and find out with him what experiences you can have in his Corte Quaiara.

Where does your love of wine come from?

No doubt, my passion is innate. It’s been inside me since I was a child, it’s in my veins. Today I represent the fourth generation of a winery with more than 120 years of history. I started in 2013 by reviving my maternal grandfather’s vineyards in the Colline Moreniche, using only my own grapes.

What are the experiences that visitors can have thanks to you?

First and foremost, I would say touching the craftsmanship of the wine. We start with a visit to the vineyard to understand the various stages of production, then we visit the wine-making part, and you can see up close how we work in the cellar, the ageing stage and the final tasting. The experience we offer is therefore not just “drinking a glass of wine”, but experiencing first-hand the work in a real winery.

What are your most popular wines?

Everyone has their own preferences in terms of taste, but what is certain is that at Corte Quaiara you do not taste ordinary wines. Among the most popular, however, and of which I am also very fond, is the Pinot Grigio Amphora, which is made from pure Pinot Grigio grapes on a soil that gives the wine all its flavour and minerality, with a constant undertone of ripe fruit. Then there is the pure Oseleta, a grape variety that few people in this area handle, characterised by a ruby red colour, with a brightness and transparency typical of Veronese red grapes. I finish with the Obardi blend, named after Antonio Obardi, the historic winemaker of Corte Quaira and my mentor. Syrah, Petit Verdot, Teroldego and Merlot are the grape varieties used in this red wine with garnet hues and various hints of ripe fruit, especially undergrowth.

Let’s talk about life as a winegrower: what are the main difficulties of this job?

It’s a constant challenge with nature: you work hard for months, then a hailstorm comes and you lose everything, so you don’t produce… On our farm, we only use our own grapes, so we always have to worry that a major weather event will not destroy what we have worked so hard for in a matter of minutes. Climate change is a factor that weighs heavily and forces us to work more and more precisely. Then of course, there are the commercial challenges, but those have always been there.

Thank you very much Giovanni for this short interview, we are looking forward that the guests of the Enjoy Garda Hotel can enrich their holiday with a winery experience to know closely the world of today’s winemakers.
Turn your interest into reality: if you stay with us we will be happy to book a visit with tasting at Corte Quaiara for you!