Restaurant in Tregnago, Italy
Historic villa, regional Veneto cooking, serious Amarone list.
A 16th-century villa in the Lessini hills east of Verona, Villa De Winckels serves honest Venetian regional cooking — house-made pasta, house-produced charcuterie — alongside a Cantina del Generale wine cellar built around Amarone della Valpolicella. Michelin Plate holder in 2024 and 2025, rated 4.6 across 881 Google reviews, and priced at €€. Easy to book and worth the drive from Verona.
Book Villa De Winckels if you want Venetian regional cooking done with care, served inside a 16th-century villa with a wine list that takes Amarone seriously. At the €€ price point, this is one of the more affordable ways to eat well in the Verona hinterland, and the 4.6 Google rating across 881 reviews tells you the kitchen earns its Michelin Plate consistently. If you are coming from Verona specifically for a destination meal, Casa Perbellini 12 Apostoli in Verona is the higher-ambition alternative. But if you want atmosphere, regional rootedness, and a serious cellar at a fraction of the cost, Villa De Winckels delivers.
The setting alone makes Villa De Winckels worth the drive into Tregnago. The building dates to the 16th century and operates as a period residence with multiple intimate dining rooms, which means the atmosphere here is not manufactured — the architecture does the work. The villa is named after General De Winckels, who once lived here, and the Cantina del Generale, the wine cellar that bears the General's name, anchors the whole experience.
The cooking is grounded in Veneto tradition without apology. House-made pasta, both stuffed and plain, forms the backbone of the menu alongside house-produced charcuterie. These are the kinds of dishes that reward a visitor who actually wants to understand what this part of northern Italy tastes like, rather than a version of Italian cooking filtered through contemporary fine-dining trends. For food and wine travellers who treat the table as a way into a place and its people, this framing is exactly right. The food is the point of entry; the wine list is the deeper story.
Cantina del Generale is the reason this venue earns its own editorial angle. The wine list draws from leading local producers and extends to labels from further afield, but the focus is unambiguously on Amarone della Valpolicella — one of Italy's most demanding and rewarding red wines, produced from partially dried Corvina, Rondinella, and Molinara grapes in the hills surrounding Verona. Tregnago itself sits within the Valpolicella Classico extended zone, which means you are drinking these wines close to where they are made, from a cellar that has the depth to offer genuine vertical choice across producers and vintages.
For wine-focused travellers, this context matters. Amarone is a wine that needs food , it is structured, full-bodied, and tannic , and the kitchen's approach to rich, slow-cooked Veneto preparations is a direct counterpart to that weight. House-made pasta with braised fillings and cured meats from the property give the wine something to work against. This is not a wine list bolted onto a restaurant as an afterthought; it is the spine of the venue's identity. If you plan to drink well, build your meal around the Cantina del Generale's recommendations and give yourself enough time to work through more than one glass. To explore the broader wine culture of the region, see our full Tregnago wineries guide.
For a benchmark of what a truly elite Italian wine program looks like at the opposite end of the price scale, Enoteca Pinchiorri in Florence holds one of Europe's most celebrated cellars. Villa De Winckels is not in that league for breadth, but at €€ it offers genuine depth in a specific category , Amarone , that Enoteca Pinchiorri covers only as one chapter in a much larger book.
The Michelin Plate, held in both 2024 and 2025, signals consistent kitchen standards without the star-level pressure on reservations. Booking here is rated Easy, which makes this a practical choice even if you are planning a last-minute wine-country itinerary. The address is Via Sorio, 30, 37039 Tregnago VR, in the Lessini hills east of Verona. The venue is not in a city centre, so you will need a car or a willing taxi driver.
For the broader Tregnago picture, see our full Tregnago restaurants guide, our full Tregnago hotels guide, and our full Tregnago experiences guide.
| Venue | Awards | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Villa De Winckels | This 16C villa, a period residence with many intimate dining rooms, boasts a picture-postcard setting. The cuisine is typical of the Veneto region, with dishes such as home-made pasta (with or without stuffing) and home-produced charcuterie on the menu. Named after General De Winckels who once lived here, the Cantina del Generale offers a wide selection of the best vintages which include local wines and labels from further field, with a focus on Amarone wines.; Michelin Plate (2025); Michelin Plate (2024) | €€ | — |
| Atelier Moessmer Norbert Niederkofler | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Dal Pescatore | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Osteria Francescana | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Quattro Passi | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
| Reale | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | €€€€ | — |
What to weigh when choosing between Villa De Winckels and alternatives.
The venue data doesn't confirm a bar dining setup. Villa De Winckels operates across multiple intimate dining rooms within the 16th-century villa, so the experience is table-based. check the venue's official channels before assuming bar seating is an option.
If the menu follows the Venetian format described in the Michelin record, the focus is on house-made pasta and home-produced charcuterie — solid regional cooking at a €€ price point. That's a reasonable spend for a Michelin Plate venue in a historic villa setting. Specific tasting menu formats aren't confirmed in available data, so call ahead to check current options.
Yes. The combination of a 16th-century villa, multiple intimate dining rooms, and a wine list that takes Amarone seriously makes this a practical choice for a celebratory dinner in the Verona province. The €€ pricing means you won't need to budget like you would for a starred restaurant, and the Michelin Plate (2024 and 2025) confirms consistent kitchen standards.
The Michelin record points to house-made pasta (stuffed and plain) and home-produced charcuterie as the kitchen's core strengths. Both are expressions of Veneto regional cooking and are the obvious anchors for your order. Pair either with something from the Cantina del Generale's Amarone selection for the full picture.
It's a working period residence, not a restaurant that happens to have old walls — the atmosphere follows from that. Expect intimate rooms, Venetian regional cooking centred on pasta and charcuterie, and a wine list with serious depth in Amarone. At €€, it's accessible for what the setting and Michelin Plate recognition suggest. Tregnago is a small town in the Valpolicella area east of Verona, so plan transport in advance.
Tregnago has limited direct competition, so the relevant comparison is regional. For more formal Venetian cooking with starred credentials, Dal Pescatore in Mantua or Osteria Francescana in Modena are benchmarks in the broader northern Italy circuit — but both are significantly more expensive and harder to book. Villa De Winckels fills a different role: Michelin-recognised, regionally grounded, and set in a historic villa at a fraction of the cost.
At €€, yes. A Michelin Plate two years running, a 16th-century villa setting, house-made pasta, home-produced charcuterie, and an Amarone-focused wine cellar is a strong value case for the price bracket. You're not paying star-restaurant prices, and the experience reflects that — but the kitchen is consistent and the setting does genuine work.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
