Drying grapes welcome guests arriving at the Soave city gates. (Photographs by Jo Cooke)
The ancient, walled town of Soave lives and breathes its white wine. The Veneto region is probably best known for its reds, such as valpolicella and amarone, but Soave, located half an hour’s drive east of Verona, is at the other end of the color scale.
Pass through the city gate and there are white grapes hanging there, drying in the persistent, autumnal mountain breeze that wafts through the streets. The pendant grapes may be destined for the Soave’s dessert wine, Recioto di Soave. They probably won’t make the best wine in the end, with all the bustle of carbon traffic that passes underneath. Yet, they are a potent symbol of intent.
From the town itself, drive up the hills for another 20 minutes or so and you reach the Suavia winery, located in the little hamlet of Fittà, at the summit of the Soave Classico designated area. No post office or grocery store here, but a mass of what seems, a first, to be jumbled vineyards, scattered around the Monte Foscarin vineyard zone.
Three Tessari sisters – Meri, Valentina and Alessandra – have run the family winery since the early 2000s, and their enthusiasm for the family project has never waned. So much so that their Soave Classico Monte Carbonare, first produced in 1986 by the girls’ father, is now considered one of the best expressions of Soave Classico. And recent vineyard acquisitions in the Monte Carbonare sub-zone are set to double the production of this, their flagship wine, bringing it close to 30,000 bottles a year.
We hear a lot today about Italian volcanic wine areas, such as Etna and Vesuvius in the south of Italy, but Soave Classico is volcanic territory too, and the soil is scattered with basalt volcanic rock, from granular to boulder in size. Into this volcanic soil are planted historic garganega vines, some dating back 50 or more years.
For the Tessari sisters, the quality of their wines is the result of a good understanding of their terroir, and they have spared nothing to get a better handle on their vineyards.
SUAVIA’S MASSIFITTI VINEYARD: Alessandra Tessari, co-owner of Suavia, introduces the Suavia varietals.
“It is precisely this volcanic terrain that marks our wines,” Alessandra Tessari said. “We have vines that hit hard basalt rock soon after the surface soil runs out. Then we have basalt shingle, through which the vines push their roots down to around 2.5 meters. It’s important for us to know what‘s going on underground.”
Their trebbiano Massifitti is a more recent addition to the winery’s roster of white wines. First produced in 2008, it is fruit of two years of genetic research, carried out in collaboration with the university of Milan, into the traditional trebbiano di Soave white grape variety, which in the past was planted widely in the Soave region but lost its popularity due to misconceptions about its capabilities. The result was the identification of 14 real, original trebbiano di Soave clones, the four best of which were planted in a new and appropriate, six-hectare environment.
“They used to plant garganega and trebbiano di Soave together in the same vineyard,” Alessandra explained. “When it came to harvest time, the garganega was good, but the trebbiano had a different ripening timescale and became more of a problem than a help. So they started to replace trebbiano di Soave with trebbiano di Toscana and, over time, trebbiano di Soave disappeared from the vineyards.”
During my recent visit to the winery, the sisters offered three selected vertical tastings – Soave Classico Monte Carbonare, Trebbiano (di Soave) Bianco Veronese and Garganega Veronese Le Rive, the last a late-harvest, Soave-style white.
Recent vintages of all three wines have been documented by JamesSuckling.com as outstanding, but what stood out is the aging potential of all three wines. Both the 1998 and 1989 vintages of Monte Carbonare (produced by the sisters’ father before their takeover) attest to the durability of this super-precise cru. Both historic vintages of this wine showed superb freshness and intact, wet-stone minerality. The Suavia Trebbiano di Soave Massifitti 2010, just the third vintage of this wine, is still holding on, with plenty to enjoy on the palate, and the Suavia Garganega Veronese Le Rive 2010 is an outstanding expression of garganega with delicious spicy and savory notes.
But it’s still a work in progress at Suavia. Below is an exclusive tasting update on their latest project, involving three new Soave Classico crus – Fittà, Castellaro and Tremenalto – again following extensive research that involved digging down to two meters at each vineyard site to understand its mineral character. The 2020 vintage will be the first release. All three are dazzling and will be sold in a special, limited-edition package of three.
You may still harbor preconceptions of the Soave category. Everyone buys a cheap Soave from the supermarket now and again. But make no mistake. The Soave Classico area is capable today of producing world-class white wine. Don’t expect a bundle of fruit, but the mineral quality will match many a top German riesling.
And the Suavia winery is possibly the most potent current driving force behind this evolution from cheap white wine to world-class status. These are wines that are tight and structured. I always advise decanting the Monte Carbonare, but that could also be valid for all three wines
The enthusiasm of the Tessari sisters is infectious. The detailed research into the potential of the Soave Classico territory is impressive. The results shine in the wine glass. Soave can be rightly proud of its daughters.
– Jo Cooke, Tasting Editor
