Late wine bars, listening rooms and evening tastings in Valpolicella.
Late wine bars, listening rooms, fortified specialists and evening tastings across Valpolicella.
Veronetta natural wine room that opens at six and runs to midnight at the weekend, the late option on the university side of the Adige.
The list: Natural wines from small Italian and foreign growers with craft beer and small plates, in a converted bakery beside the Bastioni delle Maddalene
Tip: Closed Tuesday. Sunday is the early night, 17:00 to 21:00.
Rustic hostaria a few steps from Piazza delle Erbe whose kitchen and glass list both run to midnight seven days a week.
The list: Veronese osteria list poured with bigoli, risotto all'Amarone and the rest of the city's standards, served until midnight
Tip: Closed on public holidays. The weekday lunch menu at EUR 20 is the cheapest sit-down meal in the centre.
The Buglioni cellar's Verona outpost since 2005, on Portoni Borsari, and the standing evening address for Valpolicella by the glass in the city.
The list: The Buglioni estate range poured by the glass with Veronese cicchetti, on the busiest aperitivo street in the city
Tip: Portoni Borsari fills from seven. Arrive before then or expect to drink standing on the street.
A long-established osteria under the Sottoriva arcades, where the evening service runs long and the wine board stays resolutely local.
The list: Local by-the-glass board of Valpolicella, Soave and Bardolino under the medieval arcades, with cicchetti to go with it
Tip: Closed Tuesday and Wednesday, which catches out visitors who walk past on a quiet afternoon and assume it has shut for good.
Chef Corinna Darì's palazzo dining room and wine shop near the Arena, with a courtyard garden that comes into its own once the lights go down.
The list: Wine shop and cellar attached to the dining rooms of Palazzo Cà Rezzonico, poured in the courtyard garden after dark
Tip: Ask for the dehor, the garden courtyard inside the palazzo, rather than the indoor rooms on a warm evening.
Evening service at the Massimago estate bar, where the organic Valpolicella range is poured neat or mixed and the garden looks down the eastern valley.
The list: Massimago's organic Valpolicella poured straight or built into cocktails, in a garden above the Mezzane valley
Tip: Twenty minutes east of Verona. Closed Monday and Tuesday, and worth booking in summer for a garden table.
Villa Della Torre serves dinner in the mannerist fireplace rooms, with the estate's Valpolicella and Lugana and the Bolgheri and Montalcino sister labels.
The list: Tastings of Villa Della Torre, Poggio al Tesoro and San Polo poured at a table in the rooms with the giant mascaron fireplaces
Tip: Dinner has to be booked with the villa in advance; there is no walk-in service at the complex.
Evening service at Buglioni's own restaurant among the vines at Cariano, either the five-wine pairing or the estate range with food cooked over vine cuttings.
The list: Five Buglioni wines with five courses in the Mathusalem pairing, or the estate range by the glass with the wood-fire menu
Tip: The Mathusalem pairing has to be booked as an experience rather than ordered at the table.
Evening service in the old fortified court above Fumane, where the list is built from growers the house buys from directly rather than from a distributor's catalogue.
The list: Grower-led list assembled since 1996, poured by Ada and Elisa inside the Corteforte court at Osan
Tip: Book. The dining room is small and the drive up to Osan is dark and narrow after nightfall.
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Peak wine-travel season in Valpolicella is spring through autumn, with harvest the standout window.
classified-growth and grand-cru estates require booking days to weeks ahead; smaller family domaines often take walk-ins midweek.
most estates open 10:00 to 17:00 by appointment, often closed Sunday and Monday.
tipping is not expected at tastings; buying a bottle from the cellar door is the customary thank-you.
Ask the next local you meet what they would order. Valpolicella rewards trust.