WINE
If you’re a wine lover, you can’t help but be intrigued by what they’re trying to do here. A series of modern floods had wiped out the grape variety native to the lagoon. Or so everyone thought. In the early ‘00s Venissa’s owner discovered remnants of those vines on Torcello and decided to try to replant a vineyard on Mazzorbo to make the traditional wine of the lagoon. Yes, you can grow grapes in what is essentially a salt marsh. This is the lowest altitude vineyard in the world. But it only works if you grow a local variety that’s evolved over the centuries to cope with the conditions; shallow soil, occasional flooding and a lot of salt in air and ground. The Dorona grapes are fat and golden, thick skinned and intensely sweet, but you don't have to be an expert to see that this isn’t a heavy cropper. Given that we were on the brink of harvest, and the only source of fruit was the vineyard next to the hotel, it's easy to see why this wine is a rare and expensive thing.
For €65 per person you can get a guided tour of the vineyard and taste four wines … two whites from Venissa’s grapes and two reds of their production from grapes grown in another vineyard in the Lagoon. I found this a better way to understand and sample the wine than taking a punt on the unknown label at €35 a glass from the hotel bar. Our host Luca settled us in to Venissa’s blissfully air-conditioned wine shop to take us through the details of the project. The same Dorona grapes in the same vineyard produce two varieties; the super premium Venissa that develops on its skin for four weeks before aging for at least four years (around €130 a bottle, varying slightly with vintage), and the slightly less lofty Venusa (still €70 a bottle). The Venissa bottles are as precious as what’s in them; hand blown to reflect Venice’s glass making tradition with a label of 24-carat gold fused into the glass and then etched. Each Venissa vintage is distinguished by a different shape of the the golden fusion.
The marketing, design and story make a compelling combination for any lover of wine. And the taste? Citrusy, dry, some notes of spice, pleasantly complex. I couldn’t distinguish that much of a difference … certainly not a double-the-price difference … between the Venissa and Venusa. There are few wines I’d be willing to spend this much money on and, for my tastes, there are plenty in moderate price ranges that could match this flavour profile. The reds were Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon blends that drank more like sophisticated pinot noirs; light and full of strawberry and violet but with potential for more complex vanilla and tobacco to emerge. Again, pleasant but at a very high price point for what it is, even if the better one continues with the special bottling art, here fusing copper into the glass instead of gold. and pleasant, You’re paying for the experience and the education, however, rather than tasting to buy, and for that it's a worthy excursion.
FOOD
The marketing, design and story make a compelling combination for any lover of wine. And the taste? Citrusy, dry, some notes of spice, pleasantly complex. I couldn’t distinguish that much of a difference … certainly not a double-the-price difference … between the Venissa and Venusa. There are few wines I’d be willing to spend this much money on and, for my tastes, there are plenty in moderate price ranges that could match this flavour profile. The reds were Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon blends that drank more like sophisticated pinot noirs; light and full of strawberry and violet but with potential for more complex vanilla and tobacco to emerge. Again, pleasant but at a very high price point for what it is, even if the better one continues with the special bottling art, here fusing copper into the glass instead of gold. and pleasant, You’re paying for the experience and the education, however, rather than tasting to buy, and for that it's a worthy excursion.
FOOD
Probably most successful on the experience front at Venissa is its restaurant, awarded a Michelin star for its food and another Michelin green star for its sustainability. The guide introduced its new sustainability award in 2021 and the save-the-planet vibes are the most distinctive thing about Venissa the restaurant. It isn’t vegan, but it is extremely vegetable heavy and everything comes from in, or very close to, the Venetian lagoon. All producers, naturally, are organic. All the proteins on your plate come from invasive species that are hurting the lagoon and its native species. Eating them helps return balance to the environment. Examples include large-mouth bass, imported from America as a sporting catch and now threatening the local fish with their voracious appetites, and blue crab from Asia that arrived along with the ballast in international ships.
While green positioning had the potential to become overly preachy, the worthiness disappears beneath an onslaught of exquisite food that’s a feast for the eyes and the taste buds. If saving the planet was always this much fun, more people would do it.
We went for the 10-course tasting menu, manageable because most courses were just a few bites. That bass made up my favourite course; a tartare in a crisp pastry shell covered with a tapestry of vivid micro herbs. The crab was a close second, tossed with spaghetti, a hint of tomatoes from the garden and wild flowers. The ingredients might all be local but the kitchen team brings influences from around the world. There’s a good deal of Danish-inspired fermentation, distinctly North American corn cakes and hints of Japan and Southeast Asia in spicing and sauces.
Puddings were especially surprising. I never suspected that artichoke leaves could produce something deceptively close to coffee (used in an affogato) or that you could use aubergine in a sweet; in this case as the filling in a mille-feuille. Like the inventive cep soufflé at Ekstedt at The Yard, this is another example of a flavour-carrying vegetable's ability to transform into the unexpected.
The dining room is in a majestic, restored agricultural building with such generous spacing between the tables and so many servers taking you through your evening I had to wonder how … even at a starry €290/£250 per person for the dinner and wine flight … they were making any margin. It’s actually quite good value for money against an equivalent experience in England, and the inventiveness of the cuisine is definitely worth going out of your way for.
The osteria also attached to the hotel is, however, a disappointment. When the same management does Michelin-starred fine dining and a casual, less expensive option, you want the two to be strikingly different. The osteria here feels like an afterthought to the restaurant, and not its own entity, serving up cheaper variations of the tastes next door but without the theatrical service. Having revelled in the vegetal invention, fascinating proteins and modern approaches, on the next evening I was ready to settle in to some traditional Venetian favourites. That's what you assume you’ll get at something called an osteria in the middle of the lagoon, but that's not what's really on offer. While it might have been less expensive than the night before, it was really just a pale imitation of what we'd already done. At £90 per person for dinner and drinks we’re confident we could have done better with a 10-minute walk over to Burano for some heartier, simpler cuisine. (We didn't manage to bring in Burano's Il Gatto Nero, our favourite meal of the trip, under this price point, but that's because we had an embarrassingly profligate evening. With more modest ordering and drinking, you could easily beat the Venissa Osteria's pricing there.)
STAY
The dining room is in a majestic, restored agricultural building with such generous spacing between the tables and so many servers taking you through your evening I had to wonder how … even at a starry €290/£250 per person for the dinner and wine flight … they were making any margin. It’s actually quite good value for money against an equivalent experience in England, and the inventiveness of the cuisine is definitely worth going out of your way for.
The osteria also attached to the hotel is, however, a disappointment. When the same management does Michelin-starred fine dining and a casual, less expensive option, you want the two to be strikingly different. The osteria here feels like an afterthought to the restaurant, and not its own entity, serving up cheaper variations of the tastes next door but without the theatrical service. Having revelled in the vegetal invention, fascinating proteins and modern approaches, on the next evening I was ready to settle in to some traditional Venetian favourites. That's what you assume you’ll get at something called an osteria in the middle of the lagoon, but that's not what's really on offer. While it might have been less expensive than the night before, it was really just a pale imitation of what we'd already done. At £90 per person for dinner and drinks we’re confident we could have done better with a 10-minute walk over to Burano for some heartier, simpler cuisine. (We didn't manage to bring in Burano's Il Gatto Nero, our favourite meal of the trip, under this price point, but that's because we had an embarrassingly profligate evening. With more modest ordering and drinking, you could easily beat the Venissa Osteria's pricing there.)
STAY
The third element of our Venissa experience was the stay itself. This is a “restaurant with rooms”, something I suspect is essential to running a Michelin-starred eatery here as the only transport is by boat, the public water buses stop running before dinner’s end and a private taxi back to Venice will add 30% to your dining bill. You might as well just stay. There are five rooms here and 15 under the same management in houses a short walk away on Burano. (Most of our fellow diners were Italian, but I doubt any were local to the islands.)
We loved the location next to the vineyard, 50 metres from the Mazzorbo water bus stop and a 10-minute walk to Burano. It’s the only tourist business on this tiny island, so it really feels like going local. The whole place is quiet and relaxing. While the osteria didn't impress us at dinner its location ... essentially a large, screened pavilion next to the vines ... made for a hugely picturesque breakfast spot.
We loved the location next to the vineyard, 50 metres from the Mazzorbo water bus stop and a 10-minute walk to Burano. It’s the only tourist business on this tiny island, so it really feels like going local. The whole place is quiet and relaxing. While the osteria didn't impress us at dinner its location ... essentially a large, screened pavilion next to the vines ... made for a hugely picturesque breakfast spot.
The views from our room over a canal to a couple of miniature palazzi were fabulous, and the air conditioning was fantastically efficient. (It was 30c every day and extremely humid, so that last bit was critical.) But by branding themselves a “wine resort” with a website screaming luxury they were making promises they can’t keep. With so few rooms this is, understandably, not staffed as a hotel would be and there’s often no staff around. The experience is more AirB&B than hotel. Admittedly, for just under €200 a night it’s not luxury pricing, so it's less a complaint than an observation about perception versus reality. But I still would have expected better mattress and pillow quality. The 3-star business hotel my husband stays in during his working week charges a third of the price offers a much better night’s sleep on bedding that feels far more luxurious. In the bathroom, water pressure is poor and anyone approaching 6 feet will have to crouch beneath the shower head to get clean. The last isn’t a surprise in an old property, and may have something to do with their green credentials, but but again isn’t in tune with the promise of the hospitality they’re marketing.
Bottom Line: If you’re a foodie, I’d definitely recommend the Michelin-starred dining experience. If you're eating here it’s worth the convenience of staying over the restaurant. Just adjust your expectations for a more basic accommodation than the marketing implies. If I were to return to this part of the lagoon for more than one night, however, I’d check out other options on Burano. It's clear they are limited, however, so I’d guarantee air conditioning and try to find some testimony about better beds before I gave up the relative safety of Venissa. On the wine front, I don’t think their production tastes as premium as its lofty price tag, but if you’re interested in viticulture and wine marketing it’s worth doing the wine tasting. However long you stay, don’t bother with the osteria here. Walk over to Burano for a more traditional experience, particularly at Il Gatto Nero.
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