A Day Among the Masi Drying Lofts and Barrels

When you decide to leave Verona and head northwest, following the curves that climb gently toward the Valpolicella hills, you aren’t just driving toward another tourist winery. You are about to enter one of the places where the civilization of Veneto wine has been forged through two hundred and fifty harvests, where the happy mistake of a distracted cellar master in 1936 transformed into one of the world’s greatest oenological achievements. Masi—whose name derives from the “Vaio dei Masi,” the small valley in the heart of Valpolicella Classica—awaits you with its subterranean cellars and its fruttai (drying lofts) full of grapes undergoing appassimento (partial drying), to tell you the most fascinating secret of Roman viticulture: how to transform grapes into a miracle through time, patience, and gravity.

From the Center of Verona to Masi: Leaving the City for the Hills

Having left the Porta Palio Camper Stop Area, the route to Masi is a journey of only 30–35 kilometers that completely separates the urban noise from the rural tranquility of Valpolicella. From Verona, take the North Ring Road (Verona Nord exit), then the A22 Brennero motorway north for about 10 kilometers. At the Verona Nord exit, continue in the direction of Valpolicella along gentle, undulating roads that follow the natural watercourses: the Negrar, the Marano, the Fumane—streams that carve out the valleys which give their names to the sub-zones of Valpolicella Classica.

The good news for those traveling by camper van: the Masi Winery has a large square where you can park the camper van itself during the visit. You won’t have to search for improvised parking or complex routes; the square in front of the Serego Alighieri estate (the meeting point for visits) is convenient and specifically equipped to welcome motorized visitors. This makes it a natural stop for those coming from Verona and continuing north: you park the camper, visit, taste, and leave when you are ready.

The landscape during the journey is a prelude to what you will see: fields of vines arranged in Veronese pergolas (pergolette veronesi) that draw geometries on the hills, the Lessini Mountains rising to the north as a natural barrier against the cold northern winds, and occasionally a Venetian villa among the olive trees, a reminder of centuries of agricultural prosperity.

The History of Masi: Two Hundred Years of Family Passion

Before setting foot in the cellar, it is essential to understand the heritage you are about to visit. In 1772, the Boscaini family acquired the first vineyard in the “Vaio dei Masi”—a small valley with a southwest exposure, on volcanic soils rich in minerals that still give the wines an unmistakable mineral verve today. It was not a random acquisition: the land, the altitude (between 100 and 400 meters above sea level), the natural ventilation, everything spoke of excellence.

From then until today—2025—the same family runs the company. We are now at the sixth and seventh generations of the Boscaini family. Sandro Boscaini, the current president, is nicknamed “Mister Amarone” not out of vanity but on merit: he helped transform a local wine into an icon of Made in Italy recognized in over 120 countries. In 2022, the family celebrated the 250th harvest in the original vineyards—a milestone that few Italian wine groups can boast.

But the true story of Masi is the story of Amarone itself: a wine that almost doesn’t exist, that was born from a mistake, and that later became inevitable.

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Masi Costasera Amarone Classico

grape drying

Amarone: When Mistake Becomes Excellence

Valpolicella has always been, for two millennia, the land of Recioto—a sweet, velvety wine, produced from dried grapes according to a Roman technique dating back to Cassiodorus in the 4th century, who requested “winter must, the cold blood of grapes” at his table. Recioto was the Easter wine, the sweet wine for celebration.

But around 1936, in the Cantina Sociale Valpolicella (Valpolicella Cooperative Winery), the cellar master Adelino Lucchese forgot a barrel of Recioto that was fermenting. When he found it months later, he discovered that the yeasts had done their relentless work: they had transformed all the sugar into alcohol, creating a dry, structured, slightly bitter (precisely), and impossibly complex wine. Drawing from it, Lucchese exclaimed: “This isn’t an amaro (bitter), it’s an amarone (big bitter).”

Thus, one of Italy’s most important wines was born by chance.

What makes Amarone profoundly different from any other great red wine in the world is its anatomy: it is not a concentration of freshness like a Barolo, nor is it a fierce challenge like a Bordeaux. It is the result of a voluntary reduction—the grapes lose 40% of their weight during the 3–4 month appassimento (drying process) on bamboo racks in the fruttai (drying lofts)—followed by a prolonged fermentation that lasts up to 30 days, double that of common wines. The result is a wine that contains twice the sugar and twice the tannins of a fresh wine, but which, unlike Recioto, has seen all that sugar transformed into robust alcohol.

It is a living oxymoron: a sweet wine (passito) that is not sweet, a challenge to oenological logic, a wine that exists because someone forgot the right barrel at the wrong time.

The Masi Visit: What to Expect

Guided Tour Structure

The “Masi Wine Experience” is a structured itinerary in three movements:

1. The Serego Alighieri Estate and Vineyards (30–45 minutes)

It begins at the Serego Alighieri Estate, a historic property that Masi manages in collaboration with the Counts Serego Alighieri—direct descendants of the poet Dante Alighieri since 1353 (this is not a historical joke: the Serego Alighieri are among the oldest landowners in Italy). Here you walk in the vineyards, observing the Veronese pergolas, the training systems, and the geological arrangement of the soil. If you visit in summer, you will see the bunches of grapes forming; if you visit in autumn, you will see the harvest in progress (a spectacle).

2. The Drying Loft (Fruttaio) for Appassimento (15–20 minutes)

This is the visceral heart of the visit. You enter cool, semi-dark rooms, where hundreds of wooden crates contain grapes undergoing appassimento (drying). The guide will show you the anatomy of a crate, how the grapes are laid out in a single layer, and how the bamboo structure allows air circulation. If you visit from October to January, you will see the process in real time—fresh grapes in the early months that gradually shrivel, concentrating themselves. The light filtering through the fruttaio’s windows illuminates the berries as if they were precious stones.

3. The Underground Ageing Cellars (30–45 minutes)

You descend into the belly of the cellar. It is an architectural spectacle: a labyrinth of corridors and halls with imposing vaults, along which rows of oak barrels follow one another. Some have been there for decades. The underground temperature remains constant at around 12–13°C (53–55°F) all year round—a natural climate control that the Romans knew well and that Masi exploits. Along the route, you will find contemporary works of art, architectural installations that interpret the theme of the vine and wine: it is not a sterile museum-cellar, but a space where art, history, and wine dialogue.

Here you will also see the Masi Wine Discovery Museum, a section dedicated to the history of Amarone, the appassimento technique through the centuries, with archaeological finds and historical documents.

The Tasting

After the visit, you go back up to the ground floor at the Serego Alighieri Sales Point (Rivendita). Here the staff—knowledgeable and prepared, expert tasters—will guide you through a structured tasting. The tastings are varied: you can opt for the classic tasting of 4 wines (Valpolicella Superiore MontePiazzo, Rosso Verona Brolo Campofiorin, Amarone Riserva di Costasera, Recioto Casal dei Ronchi), or for more in-depth thematic tastings. Upon request, you can add a selection of local cheeses—Grana Padano, Taleggio, cheeses that resonate with the aromas of the wine.

During the tasting, the sommelier will guide you through the sensory experience: observing the color with your eye, smelling the aromas (cooked fruit, tobacco, spices, cocoa for a mature Costasera), tasting, trying to isolate the different layers of flavor. It is a school of attention.

The Significance of This Stop

Leaving Masi in the late afternoon, your camper parked as the sun sets behind the Valpolicella hills, you will have touched one of the foundations of Italian oenological civilization. You will have seen with your own eyes how the happy mistake of a distracted man in 1936 became one of the world’s most celebrated excellences. You will have understood that behind every bottle of Amarone are two generations of work: nature drying the grapes during the coldest months, and man guiding that process with patience, observation, and knowledge.

Masi is not just another tourist stop. It is a place where the true history of viticulture can be felt firsthand—through the wood of the fruttai (drying lofts), the bamboo of the racks, the oak barrels that contain liquid time. It is a place where you understand that excellence does not mean the pursuit of the ephemeral, but the conscious repetition of techniques that the Romans already practiced two thousand years ago.

And the wine you return home to drink—whether it’s a Costasera or a simple Valpolicella Classico—will taste different. You will know where it was born, who struggled with the grapes, in which fruttaio it dried, which barrel refined it, and which generation of the Boscaini family supervised it from vine to bottle.