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After the Wine Enthusiast and Apartment Therapy, here is a another great story on Soave published in the the Wall Street Journal by the notorious wine writer Lettie Teague. Italy’s Soave Makes a Refreshing Return Source: WSJ By LETTIE TEAGUE Jul 9th Americans are famously-some might even say fiendishly-happy when something or someone once heralded falls from grace. (Call it Yankee-style schadenfreude.) Fortunately, we’re just as fond of a good comeback tale. And one of my favorite stories of vinous redemption these days is Soave. A white wine made in the Veneto region in Northern Italy, not far from Verona, Soave (the name means “soft”) is made primarily, and sometimes entirely, from the Garganega grape (it’s sometimes blended with Trebbiano or Chardonnay). It’s also a wine that most people know best as a brand: Bolla, which was incredibly popular and incredibly bland. Bolla and Soave have been linked for decades, though their most famous era was probably the ’80s, when Bolla sold more than two million cases world-wide. (Its popularity was later eclipsed by Pinot Grigio, which was even more popular and even more bland.) But like so many boring-or worse-white wines from Italy, Soave has recently experienced a real renaissance. Thanks to a small group of committed producers who have concentrated more on character and flavor than production and profit, Soave has more or less rebounded from its dismal state. But only a few wine drinkers seem to have gotten the news. “Isn’t that the wine that comes in a jug?” asked my friend Alison when I brought a bottle of Stefanini Soave to her house. “It was the wine my mother drank; I think it was called Folonari,” she said, naming the brand that was probably Bolla’s biggest competition back in the day. (While Bolla and Folonari are still major brands, they’ve made some pretty broad brand extensions, producing wines that aren’t historically Veronese, including Pinot Noir and “Pink Pinot Grigio.”)
There are also plenty of drinkers who don’t know Soave at all, including my friend Soula, who lives in Seattle. She had never heard of the wine until I served her some Soave during a recent visit. I found her ignorance especially surprising since a wine importer had told me that Seattle was a big Soave town-the third largest in the country, following New York and Boston. Perhaps Soula just isn’t drinking in the right places. Café Juanita in suburban Seattle has three Soaves on its wine list. Ristorante Barolo in downtown Seattle has three Soaves as well, almost as many as it does Pinot Grigios. Seattle wine merchant McCarthy & Schiering Wines stocks several Soaves in both of its store locations; Jay Schiering and his partner Dan McCarthy are “big Soave fans.” If only there was more of that Soave spirit in New York. Even one of my favorite wine stores, Crush Wine & Spirits, had just one, from Gini, on hand. “I tend not to stock more than one Soave at a time,” said buyer Joe Salamone. The same was true at Lincoln, one of my favorite Italian restaurants in New York. Sommelier Bryan Burnett features only one Soave, though it’s a top one: the 2007 Pieropan La Rocca, on his list at $95 a bottle. The Pieropan La Rocca Soave is generally regarded as one of the leading examples of “serious” Soave, from a producer regarded as the best in the Veneto. In fact, Nino Pieropan, who took over the winery from his grandfather in 1970, has been credited with raising the profile of the entire appellation by limiting his yields and showcasing the delicate, spicy quality of the Garaganega grape. The Pieropan vineyards are in some of the region’s best locations (high, sloping hillsides) and their single-vineyard Soaves, La Rocca and Calvarino, are considered among the most complex. They’re fermented in oak, which lends them a richness and weight that Mr. Burnett likens to a California Chardonnay “without all the buttery popcorn flavor.” There are quite a few other good Soave producers as well, including Gini, Inama, Allegrini and Anselmi-though someone unfamiliar with Soave might not realize that they all produce the same type of wine. Inama’s Soaves come in Burgundy bottles, which have sloping shoulders; and those of Anselmi, Allegrini and many others come in the square-shoulder bottle of Bordeaux. Pieropan’s bottles don’t look like those of anyone else-they’re the narrow, tapered bottles normally associated with Austria and Germany. The Veneto actually once belonged to Austria, and even though his wines weren’t Austrian-owned at the time, Pieropan’s patriarch, Leonildo Pieropan, packaged his wines as the Austrians did. Adding to the confusion are the different classifications of Soaves. There’s the basic Soave, a wine made anywhere in the 12-plus municipalities within the Soave zone. Then there are the Soave Classico wines, a notch up in quality and selection as they’re only made only in the communes of Soave and Monteforte. There are also Soave Superiores, which must be aged in the bottle for a minimum of six months. And finally there is Recioto di Soave, a sweet wine made from a special selection of grapes that have been dried in the sun. Recioto di Soave comes in both sparkling and still versions and must be aged for a minimum of 12 months. For my Soave tasting I collected about 20 bottles of all different types, from basic Soave to Soave Classico and Soave Superiore-which, it turned out, weren’t necessarily the superior wines. I ended up dividing them into three classifications of my own. First were the weirdly tropical Soaves that tasted like cheap Chardonnay (there were about six of these, including the basic wines from Anselmi and Pra). Second were the bright, clean wines that were pretty basic but still refreshing. I had several favorites in this category, including the 2010 Ca’Rugate San Michele ($10), a citrusy wine with brisk acidity, and the 2010 Re Midas Cantisna di Soave ($10) and the 2010 Santi Vigneti di Monteforte. The big surprise in this category, however, came from the brand that once tarnished the Soave name-the basic 2010 Bolla Soave Classico, which was sprightly and attractive-and definitely cheap ($10). The Soaves in the third group were lively and refreshing, but also possessed of a penetrating minerality and an impressive weight of the sort that Mr. Burnett had dubbed “non-buttery-popcorn” California Chardonnay. These included the beautiful 2008 Pieropan La Rocca Soave ($30); the “regular” 2009 Pieropan bottling, an excellent deal at $15; and the 2009 Inama-another rich, lovely wine at the same price. Even the 2008 I Stefanini Monti di Toni had surprising weight and viscosity for a $15 wine. They were all wines that I liked very much and wanted to persuade the Soave-skeptical to try. But how to convince them? According to Bolla spokesperson Lars Leicht, Frank Sinatra was a fan-so much so that Ol’ Blue Eyes reputedly said, “No Bolla, no Sinatra,” when he sat down in a restaurant that didn’t stock his favorite brand. Maybe the next time I’m in a restaurant and don’t find any Soave, I’m going to declare: “No Pieropan, no Teague”-though I doubt it will have quite the same effect.
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I totally agree !!!