It took a good dose of imagination, if not outright recklessness, to start a vineyard in Venice, the city of water. But without a doubt, it required talent, imagination, and depth to transform this gamble into one of the most charming corners of a city that is charming by definition. Not only that. The venture was also, and above all, to turn this dream into a fully functioning business that produces thousands of bottles a year while expanding into the lagoon. A patch of land, vines, and sky on the Island of Mazzorbo that attracts visitors all year round.
We are in Venissa, a project for the recovery of viticulture and sustainable hospitality in the most unspoiled part of the Venice lagoon, which hosts a vineyard that produces over 5,000 bottles per year of wine made from dorona, an indigenous white grape variety of the Serenissima. Alongside it, there is also a tavern, a Michelin-starred restaurant, and a resort that attracts guests from all over the world. In short, one of the most exclusive destinations in a city that certainly offers no shortage of attractions and points of interest. Its soul, Gianluca Bisol, a Trevisan who belongs to the eponymous dynasty of winemakers from Valdobbiadene with over half a millennium of activity behind him, conceived it almost by chance at the dawn of the new millennium. But let's organize things a bit.
Since childhood, Gianluca has been involved by his father in the family winery's activities, especially focusing on the commercial aspect and customer engagement, without neglecting the production he absorbed almost by osmosis from his two uncles who passed on to him the passion for agriculture and viticulture on one hand and wine production on the other. Every summer, the work in the winery is a refrain for him that allows him to build a knowledge that goes beyond commercial or production experience. A school of life that is capable of creating that symbiosis with the land that every wine producer should have.
Yet, that is not the main talent that is recognized, but it is still something that completes him as he himself admits: "I have always dedicated myself to the commercial aspect because I thought and still think that a company is not just a place where goods are produced, but it is also an 'experience place' for those who love our product; the emotional experiences in tasting were introduced by me 35 years ago when no one even imagined how important wine tourism would become, opening the winery to enthusiasts on Sundays with guided tours and full tastings."
A family and a brand inextricably linked to Valdobbiadene and Prosecco Superiore, that of Bisol.
Gianluca witnessed and contributed to the moment of its peak, tumultuous development, making it one of the most sought-after and marketed sparkling wines in the world. A breakthrough born from technology. Even in the 1980s, semi-automatic bottling was widely used, meaning the oxygen component could not be completely removed, creating conditions for premature aging of the wine. Inspired by what producers of long-lived white wines were doing, he pushed the family business to use an automatic bottling machine capable of even ensuring the so-called pre-evacuation of oxygen: "This opened the doors for Prosecco Superiore in the world because it allowed it to have a much longer lifespan, to internationalize, and to reach all markets across the globe. Today we talk about vertical tastings of prosecco aged even 10 years, which was impossible in the past."
How does the mind of a hill man, who immerses his own wisdom and knowledge of the land into it, give rise to the innovative idea of reinterpreting the wine industry in the most unsuspected place, that is, the Lagoon? He himself recalls: "It was 2001 and I was in Torcello. As I was leaving with my American friends from the Basilica, I noticed more carefully what was in front of me. I caught a glimpse behind a gate of a typical Venetian house of a vineyard and asked the neighbor for information about it. From this and from my acquaintance with Nicoletta and Gastone, two Venetians who still perpetuated the 'cult' by cultivating it, my knowledge of dorona was born. The original vineyard of Venice that, thanks to them, I still planted in the land of the Municipality of Venice which was granted to me, where Venissa now stands. It was one hectare at first. Today we have three."
The early days were not easy. The project of rediscovering and transplanting a vineyard in such a delicate and complex context has been a rocky journey, although with surprising discoveries, such as the possibility of recreating the Dorona in a lagoon environment, also due to the soil composition of the Island of Mazzorbo, which is less sandy than that of the hills of Valdobbiadene. Venissa has been and is also this: an eternal challenge to stereotypes and clichés that would certainly exclude the idea of starting a vineyard in the midst of the brackish lagoon waters made famous by Hemingway's writings.
Today the new challenge for Bisol is called Fattoria di Venezia, on the island of Mazzorbetto.
Five hectares surveyed with the aim of replanting original lagoon crops: "I have been conducting historical research on the crops that were originally grown in Venice for 7 years and we have managed to identify 60 of them. Now we will replant them, creating panels composed of the crops of the Serenissima in a path that will also serve as an open-air testimony. We anticipate opening to the public in 2026."
Venissa remains a happy experiment of innovation in tradition, capable of fully capturing how Italy is a unique microcosm where history, beauty, and talent emerge in the present and can connect and combine into an infinite range of flavors, sensations, and emotions that translate into our most precious asset: culture.
