Garda&Vino, a showcase for Garda wines

Claudio Andrizzi
Written by Claudio Andrizzi

One of best forward-thinking intuitions in the Garda wine and food world has just turned 20: it has been launched as, and it still is, a real “showcase” for the best wine productions of Lake Garda, conceived in 1995 by the cooperative Civielle in Moniga del Garda, on the Brescia riviera of the lake. The Garda & Vino wine shop has been conceived from the outset as a concrete realization of the basic philosophy of the cooperative Civielle, always inspired by the need to interpret the needs of the area to provide answers and solutions for the benefit of all. Hence the decision to contact all the major wineries in the area, with the idea of ​​creating a structure in which the tourist, the visitor and the wine lover all could get a general idea as exhaustively as possible of the west Garda productions, tasting, comparing and finally, of course, buying wines.
An initiative of strong promotional impact, that has somehow increased the original mandate of a cooperative (the only one operating in the wine sector on the Brescia side of Garda) that was also always and primarily a service structure for the wineries of Valtènesi and Lugana, although it has always been on the market with its own range of wines.
Today, Garda & Vino, which you can find in the Civielle headquarter strategically located on the road connecting Salò to Desenzano has become a reference point especially for foreign tourists (representing 80% of the customers) but also for hotels and restaurants, who can find here an exhaustive and as complete as possible selection of Garda oenology. Run by two professional sommeliers, Nadia Alborali and Riccardo Paganella, led by Yuri Bonomo, the wine shop now involves about forty wineries for a very wide availability of labels ranging from Lugana to red based Groppello and the Rosé of Valtènesi to other types (white wines, sparkling, dessert wines) produced by the best known companies in the area. Garda & Vino also has a corner for the most hidden and authentic flavors of Garda, with a number of very small and rare typical artisan products, often very difficult to find, ranging from olive oils to vinegars, from baked goods to the preserved fish, from honey to jams, from the rare Gargnano capers to the Salame Morenico, from the limoncello del Garda to the Pozzolengo saffron, to the Grappa, only from the typical grapes like Groppello or Lugana. As if to say that everything here has a specific value related to the identity of Lake Garda. With an orientation to encourage more and more sharply organic farming: the wine shop is in fact also the place of delivery of boxes of CortoBio, a project for the home delivery of organic fruit and vegetables produced by farmers of the territory. And it was also home to several sensorial analysis courses, theme nights, cultural initiatives in collaboration with realities and associations as Onav and Slow Food. For the immediate future, the goal is to rehabilitate the structure with the creation of a wine garden for the proposal of wines by the glass in combination with tasting of local products with the creation of a platform front view of the lake. But the ultimate goal is always to be an exhaustive showcase of Garda wines: a first point of reference where to find all the general informations to go afterwards the discovery of both the wineries and the territory.

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