Suavia - Monte Carbonare 2017 - Soave Classico DOC (100% Garganega)
(fermentation and aging for 15 months on its lees, stainless steel only, no malolactic conversion, 12.5% alcohol)
This is a wine we’ve bought regularly for many years and is the perfect summer white wine. We said in a previous article that Vermentino and summer go hand in hand but for those people who like steelier, more acidic wines without any of the tropical fruit aromas typical of most Vermentino then this is your wine. Suavia is the ancient name for Soave and the Tessari sisters have a mere 30 acres under vine producing only 30,000 bottles p.a. They chose the name Carbonare (a derivation of 'coal' in Italian) because of the black volcanic soils at 1,000 feet where their vines grow.
Bright straw yellow with lemon, apple and peach aromas immediately apparent. It’s fresh and crisp as you’d expect with no malolactic, but there’s plenty of flavor too that lingers on. This is a subtle wine and one of our favorites. At 14.50 euros it’s also good value for what is a very high quality wine.
Suavia - Massifitti 2017 - Bianco Veronese IGT (100% Trebbiano di Soave aka Verdicchio)
(fermentation and aging on its lees for 18 months, only stainless steel, no malolactic conversion, 12.5% alcohol)
Yellow with green reflections. Pear, lemon and lime on the nose and follows through with citrus and mineral notes with crisp refreshing acidity. Lovely wine which shows the potential of the Verdicchio grape in the Verona area. Seems to me to be a little more chewy and fuller than some of the Garganega wines. A good value 13.50 euro wine.
Corte Adami - Vigna della Corte 2016 - Soave Superiore DOCG (100% Garganega)
(fermentation and aging for 5 months on its lees, stainless steel only, 13.5% alcohol)
Produced from 40 year old vines in volcanic soil at 1,150 feet this is a different style of wine, hence the DOCG Superiore designation. In fact the grapes are late harvested at the end of October giving the resulting wine more richness and more alcohol but there is no residual sweetness.
Intense straw yellow. Slightly exotic nose of candied fruits and a full flavor range of orchard fruits. Nicely balanced wine with sufficient acidity but definitely stylistically different to the Soave Classico wines. Good value at 12 euros.
Azienda Agricola Gini - Soave 2019 - Soave Classico DOC (100% Garganega)
(fermentation and aging for 6 months on its lees, stainless steel only, 12.5% alcohol)
This is an organic wine from 70 year old vines in the traditional hilly area of Soave, hence the ‘Classico’ description, where the soil is volcanic rock and limestone.
Straw yellow with green gold reflections. Fragrant nose of white flowers and white orchard fruits of apple and pear. On the palate there are notes of citrus and iodine and a touch of anise, all balanced by a crisp underpinning of acidity that keeps it very fresh and elegant. A wine with real personality, making it good value at under 13 euros.
Inama - Vin Soave 2020 - Soave Classico DOC (100% Garganega)
(fermentation and aging for 8 months in stainless steel, malolactic conversion, 12.4% alcohol)
Straw yellow. From 30 year old vines on basaltic-volcanic soil. Apple, pear and a little citrus on the nose, this is a crisp, light and fresh wine with appealing mineral and floral notes. But there is also a little more depth to this wine than is apparent at first. Very good for their entry level wine and decent value at 10 euros.
Tamellini - Le Bine de Costìola 2018 - Soave Classico DOC (100% Garganega)
(fermentation and aging in stainless steel, 12% alcohol)
Good sapidità here on the palate, ie mineral notes with a more salty aspect to them and a lemony acidity running through it. However for 17 euros I expected a little more depth and complexity. A bit disappointing.
Pieropan - Soave 2020 - Soave Classico DOC (85% Garganega, 15% Trebbiano di Soave)
(fermentation and aging on its lees in glass lined cement tanks, 12% alcohol)
Pieropan is perhaps the most consistently reliable name in all of Soave and you can buy this wine, their youngest and freshest offering, every year with confidence. Because it's Pieropan you know that it's from the traditional Classico zone, from hillsides of volcanic soils, from older vines and fully organic. And with over 300,000 bottles produced each year there's plenty to go around and no need to pay more than 10 euros a bottle in Italy.
The 2020 vintage has that flinty nose of wet stones and minerals together with some floral notes. On the palate it's fresh and clean with zingy acidity and a long slightly bitter finish and there's a sneaky concentration of lemons and orchid fruit flavors that's very attractive. Another well made wine from Pieropan.
Coffele - Ca' Visco 2019 - Soave Classico DOC (75% Garganega, 25% Trebbiano di Soave)
(Stainless steel)
Unusually for a Soave Classico these days, this has a full 25% of the Verdicchio grape and you could easily mistake this wine for a Verdicchio in fact. From one of the few organic wineries in Soave this is from the prized Castelcerino vineyard at 1,000 feet of elevation. As I was writing this note Decanter announced that the 2020 vintage of this wine was crowned one of the top wines in the world. High praise indeed.
Vibrant yellow in the glass showing also more color than most Soave wines, there is a combination of citrus and tropical fruit on the nose. On the palate it's surprisingly viscous in texture with just about enough acidity to keep everything balanced. Elena complained of a slightly frutta cotta (cooked fruit) characteristic that made it less refreshing than she would have liked. Meeting her half way, I would say that it's definitely more of a winter white wine than a summer white wine in that respect. 11 euros
Inama - Foscarino 2018 - Soave Classico DOC (13% alcohol)
(fermentation in used barriques and aging in stainless steel)
It opens with a very distinctive and gorgeous mineral nose of wet stones and yellow stone fruits. On the palate this is a superb wine with a lovely balance of freshness and flavor. The fruit never becomes cloying and there's a lovely oyster shell sapidità with a spine of acidity throughout. At 15.50 this is excellent value. Could well be the best Soave we've ever had, it's that good.
The Foscarino label depicts two heads inspired by those initially drawn by the English architect Inigo Jones (1573 – 1652), one of the first Englishmen to study architecture in Italy under Andrea Palladio in Vicenza for many years. Inama ended up adopting this as their company logo, explaining further that the expressions, which originally referred to love, represent the two faces of wine, the sacred and meditative one on the right and the more profane and inebriated one on the left. Wine, as a perfect representation of mankind’s essence, can, according to the conditions, be either sacred or Bacchanalesque.