Exploring a hidden vineyard on Mazzorbo island
The vaporetto to Burano, Venice’s lace island, is standing room only. But as we slowed down as we approached the stop before that, Mazzorbo, I was one of three people waiting to get off.
“That’s pretty standard,” Luca Carnevali told me as I stepped off the dock to meet him. “People often get off here by chance, thinking they are already in Burano.”
And the few who set foot on this postage stamp of an island rarely venture into the walled garden footprints far from the pier. It’s a shame, because they’re missing one of Venice’s unique sights: a 14th-century turreted bell tower surrounded by grape vines that was considered lost until just over 20 years ago.
This is my fourth time in Venice and I have been determined to visit this vineyard, Venissa, ever since I learned of its existence on my last visit 18 months ago. I’m here with my sister, but I’m flying alone in the afternoon. Never been to Venice before and we only have one afternoon in the city. In the morning, we board the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express to go to Paris.
As much as she loves wine tasting, she also knows that coming with me means sacrificing precious daylight hours on first-timers’ Venice to-do list: St. Mark’s Square, the Grand Canal, the gondolas. As a compromise, she’ll then catch a vaporetto to the island and join me for dinner at Osteria Contemporanea, the more casual of Venissa’s two acclaimed restaurants (her sister, Venissa, has a Michelin star).
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So we go our separate ways: On foot, through the depths of the alleyways in front of the canal, towards the Doge’s Palace; I call the number 12 vaporetto for the hour-long ride to Mazzorbo, where Venissa’s wine ambassador Carnevali is waiting to greet me.
“It is unexpected to find vineyards in Venice today, but there is a long tradition of making wine throughout the lagoon,” says Carnevali. At Mazzorbo, vines flourished for more than 700 years until a devastating disaster lasted 10 days. grandfather In 1966, viticulture came to an end on the island and in Venice as a whole.
In 2001, Venissa’s founder, winemaker Gianluca Bisol, uncovered a glimmer of hope when he came across a small private garden on the neighboring island of Torcello planted with the native Venetian grape (dorona), which was thought to have been destroyed in floods.
Two hectares of thick-skinned, golden grapes, which he later planted in Mazzorbo, grow in this salty soil just centimeters above the water level. The result is a duo of wines: Venissa and Venusa. Production is very small with only 4500 bottles per year. A 500-milliliter bottle of Venissa, complete with a gold leaf label hand-forged by the last jeweler in Europe, sells for $285.
Carnevali offers me two tasting services. Both share a different saline profile, although Venissa is richer. Due to its full body and tannin structure, it is, as Carnevali describes it, “a red wine disguised as white”. Dorona was the preferred grape variety for the Doges’ banquets. The next day I learned that this place is now suitable for the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express.
With only two wines, the tasting is short-lived and I’m soon crossing a wooden footbridge towards my better-known neighbour, Burano. The clocks have just gone back and when the sun goes down it’s like the lights are turned off. The island is devoid of tourists.
There are a pair of nonnas to keep me company on nightly block walks, and there are stolen glimpses of life inside the ground floor apartments I pass. This is how I spy on an elderly woman who is enjoying an Italian TV series while her husband serves them an aperitivo. The snapshot of daily life for Venetians is unexpected and magical.
As I sip my own aperitif in one of the only bars open along Burano’s main canal, my sister texts me a photo of herself in Piazza San Marco. “They’re out there with half the world,” he jokes. Even though it is the end of October, Venice is still flooded with tourists.
A few hours later, we reconvene over Osteria’s signature dish, lagoon blue crab, accompanied by vegetables growing alongside the vines (and tended by retirees from Burano).
My sister is happy and satisfied that she finally visited Venice. “But I can’t help but think it’s a theme park,” he says. “I’m not sure I should go back.”
As the lights of Venice approached on our return vaporetto, he came to my perspective: the true charm of Venice lies in the little-known stories and streetscapes of the outer islands. Fortunately, there are plenty of reasons to return, as more than 100 of them are scattered like a patchwork across the lagoon.
DETAIL
VISIT
A 45-minute tour and two wine tastings at Venissa are $80; The four-course tasting menu at Osteria Contemporanea costs $125. To see venissa.it.
FLY
Emirates has multiple daily non-stop flights to Dubai from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. From here, connect to a daily non-stop flight from Dubai to Venice Marco Polo Airport. To see emirates.com.
TO STAY
A stylish five-room guesthouse in Mazzorbo, away from the hustle and bustle of Venice, as well as 13 rooms inside the brightly colored Casa Burano on the island of Burano, complete Venissa’s wine and dining offerings. Prices start from $265 per night and include breakfast. To see venissa.it.
MORE
visitvenezia.eu, italya.it
The author was a guest of Venissa and Venice Simplon-Orient-Express
