Pasini San Giovanni

From the family osteria to the first winery

Andrea and Amelia Pasini opened an osteria selling wine in 1940. Andrea established the first family winery in Via Volta, Brescia, in 1958. That year is treated as the foundation of Pasini San Giovanni and the beginning of the family's work among vineyards and wine.

In 1964 Andrea's youngest son, Bruno, graduated in oenology and joined his brothers Diego and Giuseppe in running the winery. Continued growth led to a move in 1967 to San Zeno Naviglio, on the immediate outskirts of Brescia.

Cascina San Giovanni and control of the complete production cycle

A decisive change came in 1977 with the purchase of 15 hectares of vineyards and Cascina San Giovanni at Raffa di Puegnago del Garda. The family could now grow its own grapes and vinify them at the estate, taking responsibility for the complete chain from vineyard to wine. The eighteenth-century rural complex became the family's agricultural home in the mid-1970s.

The sparkling-wine tradition was established around the same period. One historical account dates the family's first Metodo Classico to 1977, while the principal timeline records the first non-dosage Metodo Classico sparkling wine in 1980. In 1981 the family introduced San Gioan I Carati, its first red riserva, named after Cascina San Giovanni.

Expansion into Picedo and Lugana

In 1991 the family acquired 12 hectares at Picedo di Polpenazze, an area selected for the production of high-end wines. The vineyards were planted at the beginning of the 1990s, including the Arzane cru with selected Groppello material and a two-hectare planting of Riesling Renano.

Paolo, son of Diego, and Luca, son of Bruno, entered the management of the winery in 1992, beginning the third generation's operational role.

Eight hectares in Peschiera del Garda, in the heart of Lugana, were purchased and planted in 1998. This expansion allowed Pasini San Giovanni to vinify exclusively grapes grown in its own vineyards. The Lugana holdings subsequently encompassed vineyards at San Benedetto di Lugana, including the localities of Broglie and Busocaldo, while the estate's vineyard map also identifies holdings at Desenzano del Garda.

A new winery and environmental accounting

The modern winery beside Cascina San Giovanni dates from 2001 and was inaugurated in 2002. It was designed as a technically equipped facility capable of handling hand-picked estate grapes separately for white, rosé and red vinification while retaining the family's traditional focus on local varieties.

Pasini San Giovanni celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 2008 with Centopercento Extra Brut, presented as the first Metodo Classico made from Groppello vinified as a white wine.

A 90 kW photovoltaic installation entered service in 2009. The estate joined the Ita.Ca programme to measure and control greenhouse-gas emissions throughout its production chain and began experimenting with organic vineyard management. The programme led to certification of the corporate carbon footprint in 2012 by CSQA–Valore Italia, using the Ita.Ca system applied by the Sata group.

The third generation and organic certification

Sara, Luca's sister, joined the management in 2012 after professional experience outside the estate. That year Pasini San Giovanni also became part of the Federazione Italiana Vignaioli Indipendenti, reinforcing its identity as a grower that cultivates its vineyards, vinifies its grapes, bottles at its own winery and sells its own wine.

Laura, daughter of Giuseppe and chronologically the first member of the third generation, joined the operating group in 2013. In 2014 the estate received its first organic certifications following the conversion process begun in 2009. Rosagreen was also introduced that year as an organically farmed Valtènesi rosé made solely from Groppello.

The 2016 tirage of Ceppo 326 Rosé marked the first use of Erbamat in that project. In 2018, the estate's sixtieth anniversary, the winery courtyard received Vigneto Sospeso, the first of its publicly accessible installations. In 2019 a small part of the Sguazza vineyard was dedicated to experimentation with Prior, a PIWI resistant variety.

Lettera C and a new phase for aged rosé

The debut of the 2019 Lettera C brought Pasini San Giovanni its first Tre Bicchieri from Gambero Rosso in 2021, expressing the idea that Valtènesi rosé could develop through extended ageing. In 2022 Lettera C was recognised as Italy's best rosé, continuing the estate's exploration of age-worthy Groppello rosé.

Valtènesi

The Valtènesi vineyards occupy hills west of Lake Garda on the Brescia side of the lake. They face the morning sun and combine a northerly Alpine position with a distinctly Mediterranean exposure. The immense lake moderates conditions at the foot of the Alps, creating a microclimate in which vines and olive trees coexist with cedars, capers, palms and lemons.

The soils around Raffa di Puegnago and at Picedo di Polpenazze are loose and permeable, rich in stones and derived from glacial moraine. The landscape retains the imprint of ancient glaciers. This combination of morainic soils, lake influence and morning exposure forms the habitat in which Groppello has been preserved for centuries.

The winery and its surrounding Raffa vineyards stand at approximately 148 metres above sea level. The Picedo vineyards lie at approximately 191 metres and are a few kilometres farther south.

Lugana

The Lugana vineyards are at San Benedetto di Lugana in Peschiera del Garda and at Desenzano del Garda, both mapped at approximately 67 metres above sea level. The soils are strongly clay-based and lie close to Lake Garda at the foot of the Alps. Lake influence creates the local microclimate in which Turbiana is grown.

Turbiana is genetically similar to Verdicchio and related to the wider Trebbiano family. It is adapted to these clay soils and the Lake Garda microclimate. The variety has medium-sized clusters, modest productivity, good resistance to grape parasites and late ripening, together with an acid profile associated with vitality and capacity for ageing.

All estate vineyards have been managed under certified organic farming since 2014, following trials that began in 2009. The objective is to reduce pollution from agricultural work, improve soil structure and encourage a diverse, healthy and balanced ecosystem.

The approach minimises auxiliary energy derived from industrial processes and favours the use and reuse of organic matter. Growth-forcing techniques, synthetic products and genetically modified organisms are avoided. Vineyard health is managed through agronomic remedies and attentive cultivation, with sulphur and copper retained as traditional permitted treatments.

The emission-reduction measures implemented during 2009–2011 included permanent grassing between rows, shredding prunings in the vineyard and using exclusively organic fertilisers. No herbicides or chemical fertilisers are used.

Groppello is treated as a particularly fragile local variety: its compact bunches, thin skin and juicy pulp call for low bunch numbers, careful work and continuing research. The grapes are harvested by hand and selected during harvest. Reusable, washable food-grade crates are employed; approximately 20,000 crates are filled and emptied during a typical estate harvest. An installation illustrating this work equated 470 crates at 15 kg each with about 7,000 kg of fruit from a favourable one-hectare harvest containing approximately 4,200 vines.

Biodiversity is understood broadly through the coexistence of vines, olive trees, bees, flowers and numerous plant species. The estate has also replaced former plastic vine ties with rubber rings derived from plant latex.

The modern winery beside Cascina San Giovanni dates from 2001 and was inaugurated in 2002. Its technology and dedicated equipment allow hand-picked estate grapes from Puegnago, Polpenazze, Peschiera and Desenzano to be vinified separately as white, rosé and red wines in accordance with the characteristics of the local varieties.

The working areas presented during cellar visits include the harvest-reception zone, stainless-steel tanks, a barrel cellar, still-wine maturation spaces and a separate area for ageing traditional-method sparkling wines. The estate's general facilities therefore encompass stainless steel, barriques and bottle-ageing spaces.

Rosé vinification has been part of the family's work with Groppello since the 1960s. The cellar also produces red wines from Groppello and associated local varieties, white wines from Turbiana, and Metodo Classico sparkling wines. The sparkling-wine tradition dates to the late 1970s; the estate associates its Metodo Classico wines with at least 1,000 days of maturation on the lees. Groppello is vinified as a white wine for Centopercento, while Erbamat entered the Ceppo 326 Rosé project with the 2016 tirage.

The winery and its operations are powered by the photovoltaic installation commissioned in 2009. Environmental changes have also included lighter bottles for both sparkling and still wines, recycled uncoloured cardboard, the removal of unnecessary wrapping and preference for suppliers located as close as practicable to the winery.

Pasini San Giovanni presents wine and olive oil as the work of artisans interpreting their territory: Valtènesi and Lugana establish the direction, while personal experience and passion contribute character. Wine should be a natural expression of its place rather than a forced spectacle.

The family's stated ideal links good wine to healthy land and treats each generation as a custodian obliged to pass that land on in better condition. Agricultural sustainability is pursued as a means of creating environmental beauty, improving soils and sustaining a harmonious ecosystem.

Time, accumulated knowledge, courage and experimentation are treated as complementary rather than opposing values. This is reflected in research on Groppello, the use of Erbamat, the experimental planting of the PIWI variety Prior, extended ageing for Valtènesi rosé and a Metodo Classico tradition built around long maturation.

Family continuity remains central. The estate has stayed under Pasini family management through three generations and defines itself through inseparable relationships among people, vineyards, Cascina San Giovanni and the wider Lake Garda landscape. Membership in FIVI expresses the same commitment to cultivating the vines, harvesting and vinifying estate fruit, bottling in the estate cellar and taking responsibility for the wines sold under the family name.