Cantina di Quistello is one of the first Mantovan oenological realities to have obtained the Equalitas Certificate "Modulo Organizzazione Sostenibile" (Sustainable Organisation Module), proof of its strong commitment in recent years. So a cooperative reality that considers tradition an innovation, the very innovation that leads it towards both the near and long term future. "Healthiness" in vineyard management with the use of techniques aimed at respecting the environment and the consumer, i.e. both obtaining grapes with the lowest chemical residue content to be transformed into an increasingly healthier wine. Another value that the cooperative pursues is the all-around ethical one, involving the players in the supply chain directly and indirectly.
Contact our staff for more information on the wines on sale both online and directly at our winery.
List of prizes and awards presented to Cantina di Quistello
Cantina Sociale di Quistello was founded in 1928. It is, therefore, 85 years since a group of winegrowers established it.
We like to think, however, that our Cantina has its roots in a much more ancient history. A history made up as much of farmers as of poets. A history that harks back to times long past!
The production area of Lambrusco Mantovano is an area of very ancient viticultural and gastronomic traditions, and to find the first traces of 'Labrusca' or 'Lambrusca', as the vineyards from which our wine derives were initially called, it is necessary to look back into the past.
A few kilometres southeast of Mantua, for example, lies an important Etruscan settlement dating back to the 6th_4th century B.C.: the Forcello Archaeological Park. The Forcello, located in the municipality of Bagnolo San Vito, has yielded a truly exceptional wealth and variety of finds. And among these are not lacking precious transport amphorae for wine.
These finds support the thesis that local wine was exported for a long time.
The Adriatic sea route, which came from the Aegean and utilised the harbours of Adria and Spina, made it fairly easy to reach the Po Valley via the river routes.
The 'Labrusca' was known not only to the Etruscans but also to the Romans. Some precise references by Latin writers in their works can be considered, in this sense, valuable documents, on the presence of this vine and how it was also known to the Roman population.
It is almost 2000 years ago, for example, that 'Vitis Labrusca' is mentioned in the fifth Bucolica by the Mantuan poet Virgil, who was a precious and direct witness to the presence of the Lambrusco vine in the Mantuan territory!
To this day, it is not possible to trace back precisely when the cultivation of the Labrusca vine in the way it is conceived today was considered!
Certainly, vine cultivation took on a fundamental value at the end of the 11th century with the Benedictine monks in the territories of the Polirone Abbey in San Benedetto Po. The monks established the payment of an annual tribute (the preménda) to the tenants. The economist Ugo Ruberti noted how the peasants used the grapes from the Lambrusco vineyards to secure a high-quality wine much appreciated by the monks for its taste, perfume and even its intense colour. (After all, Pliny the Elder already wrote in the Naturalis Historia "... the Vitis vinifera whose leaves, like those of the Labrusca vine, turn a sanguine colour before falling...").
Ugo Ruberti, a Quistella scholar and expert in agriculture and viticulture, was responsible for the discovery of the indigenous Grappello Ruberti vine. Historical evidence of this vine can be found since the early 1900s when the famous ampelographer Dal Masso declared at a conference in 1939 that for a very long time Grappello Ruberti had been the only vine grown in the area.
In 2013, the Ministry of Agriculture officially recognised Grappello Ruberti as a grape variety whose indigenous grape 'is widespread above all in the Mantuan Oltrepò and in particular in the area of Cantina Sociale di Quistello'!
What we have simply told you is but a part of a truly evocative story that spans centuries, populations and territories!
It is the story of a wine that we love and to which we dedicate our work with commitment and passion, aware of the privilege we have in carrying on this story that is as long as it is special.
Cantina Sociale di Quistello is made up of a group of members who work with commitment and dedication to achieve a common goal: always guaranteeing the genuineness of the product to the final consumer. For this, each of them follows integrated pest management systems with low environmental impact.
Their efforts to ensure the best wine have led, over the years, to the winning of numerous awards and prizes of great importance.
Come and experience for yourself the quality of a Lambrusco Mantovano prepared according to the best local tradition.
Monday to Friday
from 8.00 a.m. to 12.00 noon
and from 2.30 p.m. to 6 p.m;
Saturday mornings only
Guided tours of the winery and vineyards and wine tastings are possible. There is ample parking on the estate for cars and coaches.
Contact us for more information.