Azienda Agricola Ottella was founded in 1880 by the Montresor family; a grape growing family for many generations. Ottella ­the name refers to the story that octuplets were born at the estate in 1500. The coat of arms in the courtyard (and now on the labels) seems to bear it out: it shows eight little baby heads in memory of the event. The winery remains in the family today, owned by brothers Francesco and Michele Montresor. Their family estate covers 60 acres in a specially favored corner on the southern shore of Lake Garda, in the Lugana basin, situated in the Veneto province. The soil is of certain glacial origin. The descent of ice and the detritus it carried towards the valley formed an amphitheater of moraine hills, leaving the Lugana basin in its wake. The land is relatively flat, and the soil is compact clay, yet the wine is refined, mineral and age-worthy. The brothers believe it is this glacial clay that is responsible for limiting the natural vigor of the lakeside vines. This explains how an apparently normal vine, in combination with the purest of clay, can be turned into a spectacular white wine, vivacious in its expression of its particularities.