Alessandro Botter

After much searching, we finally found an Italian producer that could deliver brilliant quality wines AND cracking prices. It is an 82 year old family company run by three botter cousins under the watchful eye of their octogenarians fathers Arnaldo and Enzo Botter. Check them out here. As you can see they are not our typical small producers, but...when it comes to entry level wines they could not be beaten. And, through them, we are able to get to some proper teeny lil uns, which we could not do otherwise, cos they're just not geared up to export.

Rowan - Founder

Alessandro's Story

 “Firstly I cannot take all the credit for our wines. It is a family affair, I work very closely along side my cousin Luca and my sister Annalisa. We are now a third generation winemaking family, it all started with my grandfather Carlo Botter.

 We believe just like our grandfather did that our future success really lies in making the most of the fabulous indiginous grapes our region has to offer. Yes we have had many experiments with grapes from all over the world but time and again the ones we end up pouring into our own glasses at the end of the day are the traditional grapes my grandfather started growing all those years ago. For many in the UK I know the Italian grape names may seem strange, unfamiliar and tricky to pronounce (especially after a few glasses) but please do try them. I am proud of every drop!

 We were not born yesterday. We've come a long, long way. All the way from 1928, in fact, when Carlo Botter, a wine merchant who traded in table wine for the Venetian patrician families decided to start his own business.

First a small winery, then a few more acres of land, until, over the years and with the help of my father, my uncles and now us grandchildren, the Casa Vinicola Botter became the established wine producer it is today. Perseverance and stubbornness were the first ingredient of our success. But the terroir has definitely had its own part.

 Our vineyards are in the Piave doc area, just across the boundary line with Friuli. The area of Italy where we are is a few kilometres from Venice and just this side of Friuli is a blessed area indeed. Or, rather, a land with a vocation, as those in the trade define it.

 Not many people know that Ernest Hemingway was one of my grandfather Carlos Botters' first and best customers. During the First World War, the eighteen year old Hemingway drove ambulances at Fossalta di Piave. Even as a young man, the future Nobel laureate loved "energetic" activities, such as hunting in the lagoon area, fist fighting and - of course – drinking. My grandfather was just starting, and sold his wines to the local restaurants and through shops. One of their customers came "on behalf of an American soldier, great guy, a bit of a loud-mouth, with a taste for good wine", particularly Pinot Grigio. Hemingway stayed in Fossalta until he was injured and hospitalised in Milan. After the war he came back to the Piave river area many times to go hunting and taste our Pinot Grigio."