Sauve Soave

Pieropan Soave, DOC

Italy- Unlike pinot grigio, which is the name of a grape that can essentially come from anywhere in Italy, Soave is an actual place, in the northeastern province of the Veneto. As in other Old World wine producing regions, mid-20th-century science and technology permitted farming on a large scale, and Soave producers in the 1970s were able to greatly expanded the region from a central core of hillside vineyards to flatter, easier-to-farm areas. An emphasis on quantity over quality. The pendulum began to swing in the 1980s and ‘90s, when a small group of producers decided to make the best possible wines from the best vineyards. They drastically reduced yields and renewed their focus on garganega vines, resulting in wines of greater character and intensity. The best wines largely came from the original hillside Soave vineyards, designated Soave Classico to distinguish it from the plain Soave produced in the expanded zone. New rules prohibited the use of trebbiano Toscano (also known as ugni blanc) in Soave Classico and required the wine to be at least 70 percent garganega. Classico Soaves are crisp and straightforward, fermented and aged in steel tanks to emphasize a fresh, fruity liveliness. Pieropan is one of the top names in Soave, it blends some trebbiano di Soave into its Soave Classico and uses glass-lined tanks.