Pasqua Wines Unveils Fifth Edition of Hey French

Sometimes the wine world takes itself a little too seriously. Not so at Pasqua Wines in Verona, who have just released the fifth edition of one of the cheekiest bottles on the market, a wine provocatively titled Hey French: You Could Have Made It But You Didn’t.

Yes, you read that correctly. Somewhere in France a sommelier probably just sighed loudly.

The Verona-based winery unveiled the latest edition of the wine during its annual press conference at the spectacular Museo Archeologico at Teatro Romano, a suitably dramatic setting for a wine that happily pokes the Bordeaux bear.

A Wine That Breaks the Rules

“Hey French” isn’t just about the name. The wine itself is deliberately unconventional.

Instead of following the traditional “one vintage per bottle” rule, Pasqua uses a multi-vintage blending technique more common in Champagne than in still wines. The new edition blends six vintages, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022 and 2024, to create a layered, evolving wine that changes character with every sip.

Think of it as the wine equivalent of a greatest-hits album.

The grapes come from Monte Calvarina, a volcanic hillside vineyard sitting around 500 metres above sea level, giving the wine its distinctive mineral backbone.

After fermentation, the blend spends six to eight months ageing in oak barrels before additional refinement in stainless steel. The result? A white wine with serious complexity but a playful personality.

What Does It Taste Like?

According to the winery, the fifth edition delivers:

Exotic fruit notes

Chamomile and sage aromas

Rose buds on the nose

Almond hints from Garganega grapes

Herbaceous touches from Sauvignon Blanc

A subtle volcanic minerality

In short: the kind of wine that practically demands a second glass.

A Global Hit

The cheeky label hasn’t hurt sales either.

Pasqua reports that global revenue for the wine doubled in 2025, with strong demand from Italy, the United States and, rather amusingly, the United Kingdom

It turns out British wine drinkers quite enjoy a little Franco-Italian rivalry with their dinner.

Wine Meets Art

Pasqua also used the event to highlight its continuing love affair with the arts. The winery is sponsoring Verona’s Estate Teatrale Veronese festival and commissioning a large public art installation by artist CB HOYO at the Teatro Romano.

It’s all part of the winery’s broader cultural programme, which has invested around €6.7 million in artistic projects over the past decade, bringing together wine, creativity and public spaces.

A Bottle With Attitude

Wine is often wrapped in centuries of tradition, rules and whispered tasting notes.

Pasqua’s “Hey French” proves it doesn’t always have to be.

Sometimes the best wine stories start with a wink, a raised eyebrow… and a bottle that basically says:

“We did it our way.”