A Slice of the Good Life

La Cantina one of the wineries participating in La Dolce Vita Festival.

Meet one of the Italian families sharing their love of the ‘good life’, which includes producing 100% preservative free wine, ahead of La Dolce Vita’s food and wine festival in the King Valley.

La Dolce Vita means ‘the good life,’ which was summed up by Bertrand Russell as ‘… inspired by love and guided by knowledge.’

Nothing could ring truer for the Corsini family of the King Valley and their small, family owned and operated winery, La Cantina. Each family member lives their ‘good life’ inspired by the love of wine and family, and guided by knowledge passed down through generations.

“La Cantina is 100% family owned and operated,” Linda Newton (Gino Corsini’s/ La Cantina’s founder) daughter told Border Cafe.

“Dad’s 86 and still the CEO, my brother is the next winemaker, I do accounts and the rest of the family help out with general maintenance and things.

“We do it for the love of wine, the love of the industry and Dad’s passion which has been passed through to us.”

Gino Corsini.

La Cantina will welcome hundreds of people through their doors for the annual La Dolce Vita Festival (16 – 17 November), offering traditional Italian food made from precious Corsini family recipes, free tastings (including museum wines and a very special first release wine so secret they won’t even divulge if it’s red or white!), markets and live entertainment. Though it’s a lot of work, Linda can’t wait.

“Festivals are special times for us because all the family members – that’s children, partners, grandchildren and now their partners as well – come home and help out over the weekend, then we have a big catch up after,” she said.

And who wouldn’t want to come home to the beautiful La Cantina cellar door? Built from Glenrowan granite rocks in traditional Tuscan style, a local bricklayer completed the work in 1997 with advice from Gino. Gino learnt these techniques from working with his grandfather using stone for a couple of years in Italy, before moving to Australia.

La Cantina markets.

The patriarch also learnt winemaking techniques in Italy, following the Corsini Family traditions, with no preservatives added and no filtration, retaining the full characteristics of each wine.

“It’s quite tricky,” Linda said.

“There are some other wineries that do it, they might have one or two preservative free wine, but 100% of our products have no preservatives added to them. It’s just the way Dad used to make it back home with his father and grandfather in Italy. He came to Australia and continued to make it over here, originally just for friends and family, but they loved it and it grew from there.”

To sample ‘the good life’, Corsini style, head to the King Valley for the La Dolce Vita Festival 16 – 17 November. La Cantina is offering a special for $45 which includes a two course meal and entry to the nine participating Italian family wineries for both days.

For more on La Dolce Vita Festival, 16 – 17 November: http://www.winesofthekingvalley.com.au/events/la-dolce-vita/la-dolce-vita-festival-2019-whats-on/