The Man Who Tore It All Down to Begin Again When Giambattista Ugolini stood among his family’s vineyards after his father Angelo passed away in 1996, he didn’t see a legacy to protect. He saw one to resurrect. Rather than continue farming the way it had always been done, Giambattista did something unthinkable. He ripped out every vine his father had planted. Not out of rebellion. But out of devotion. He immersed himself in 19th-century Italian agricultural texts. Manuals from a time before chemical sprays and yield boosters. In their yellowed pages, he discovered what most had forgotten: our ancestors already knew how to farm in harmony with nature. He replanted his vineyards to recreate a self-sustaining, organic ecosystem, as it had existed before the industrial age. No chemicals. No shortcuts. It took nearly 25 years before his first Amarone was released. Every bottle of Tenute Ugolini tells a story of a place and of a man who was willing to destroy everything… just to bring it back the right way. For this extraordinary dedication to preserving Valpolicella’s natural and cultural heritage, Giambattista Ugolini was knighted by the Italian Republic. | 