GRAPEVINE: Feel suave, DRINK SOAVE

Veneto, in the north-east of Italy, is the home of some of your favourite wines whether you know it or not.

The benchmark examples of Pinot Grigio come from this area in DOCs such as Friuli, Collio and Alto Adige. Prosecco finds its home around the areas of Treviso and Conegliano north of Venice too. The region is also home to some wines that you may have yet to discover, or may have tried when visiting the area but forgotten shortly after.

Soave may just be one of these. When we talk about Soave (pronounced “swah-vay”), we are talking about a commune and a wine style, not a grape variety. The commune of Soave sits east of Venice, closer to the city of Verona on the way to Milan. The region started out as an area producing high quality white wines on the hillside vineyards planted in varying levels of limestone and volcanic rocks.

Garganega making up most of the blend with smaller parts of Trebbiano di Soave, and at times Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio, resulting in wines with an intense rocky/“minerally” edge softened by the use of oak aging or lees contact for a subtle creaminess and at times plumped up a little by Chardonnay. As with so many of the wines in the area, they can often have a subtle nutty character through the finish which varies in prominence from wine to wine.

During the 1970s, the Soave appellation was expanded down the hills and on to the flatter areas of poorer soil quality for high quality wines which was only highlighted by the increasing use of Trebbiano, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio grown at much higher yields than a quality producer would aim for. Wines from this part of the region will be labelled as Soave DOC and can offer great value every day drinking as light crisp whites, but there also a lot of awful, thin and weedy tasting wines too.

The Soave Classico DOC and DOCG designation is where to look for the best quality examples, principally from the hillside vineyards. In particular, the superior DOCG wines will be made up of at least 70 per cent Garganega and up to 30 per cent Trebbiano di Soave or other permitted varieties. Some of these wines will be vinified quite simply in stainless steel and produce clean, lively fruit-driven examples of Soave such as the Cantine Pra ‘Otto’ Soave ($32), which shows the mineral, citrus driven nature of the style, filled out with some peach and subtle floral character forming a medium weight wine that is very easy drinking. Nardello ($29), in the southern part of the region, produce a slightly softer example, in part due to the wine being left on its lees for a few months.

A little more obvious floral/spice character with less nuttiness, the wine sees lower sulphur levels and thus is quite open and expressive straight away. Finally, we have one of the benchmark producers in Gini ($39): a certified organic producer who do not add any sulphites during vinification.

Their vinification is similar to that of Nardello, being straightforward in stainless steel with some lees aging. The result is a slightly riper flavour spectrum of stone and tropical fruits alongside more obvious almond nuttiness through the finish.