WBW47: The Letter S

Wed 9 July 2008

This month's WBW, hosted by Grape Juice, is brought to us by the letter S. Simple - choose a wine which has a connection (as tenuous as you please) with the letter 'S'. All the things that I love that I could choose from ... but I like to use WBW as an opportunity to stretch my wine drinking experience, so I chose a Soave.

It's no secret I'm not a fan of Italian whites ... I try really, really hard and I just don't get them. At the beginning of the year I bought a Pieropan Soave which I gave away as a house warming present. I was pretty disappointed when InterWined tried the same wine and found it an excellent accompaniment to a children's birthday party. So when the opportunity came up to buy a bottle (at 30% off what's more!) I seized the day!

Let's start with the facts ... Soave is one of Italy's DOCGs*, produced in the north east, in the area known as the Veneto. The principal grape is Garganega, and the wine can be fleshed out with up to 30% Trebbiano (also known as Ugni Blanc - one of the main grapes from which Cognac is made). A rule of thumb is that the greater the ratio of Garganega to Trebbiano, the better. And, of course, the more expensive the wine will be: Trebbiano is easy to grow and high yield, but can be a little uninspiring.

And that's how we arrive at the Pieropan Soave Classico 2006**, which is 90% Garganega and costs around the £9-£10 mark. My retailer was selling it for £10, and I paid £7. I couldn't rustle up a children's birthday party, so we drank it with linguine al granchio - about which, more tomorrow.
The wine was a pretty sunshine yellow colour but the nose was incredibly closed. I'm prepared to accept some responsibility here as I might not have retrieved the wine from the fridge early enough, but even as we made our way through the bottle and the wine had an opportunity to warm up things didn't become more pronounced. Being a generous type, I thought there was a hint of pear. Andy thought it smelt of nothing.

On the palate things were much improved. The pear was still there with a slightly confected note. You started here and the flavours developed into a nutty, richer, fattier middle, before finishing with some good clean acid - so good length and structure. The fruit flavours weren't especially complex and the fatty middle made this a wine with considerably more weight than you might expect from a Soave.

I have to say that this is a good wine ... it ticks most of the boxes, and sat well with our dinner. However, I can't really say I enjoyed it - and I can't really put my finger on why not. I certainly wouldn't be spending £10 on a bottle and, faced with it in a restaurant, where it would be hitting the £30 mark, I'd be choosing something else altogether.

Soave drinkers - I recommend it.
Italian white wine aficionados - I recommend it.
Alex - I recommend you drink more Italian white wine.

tagged with: wine blogging wednesday, wbw, wine, italy, soave

*DOCG - Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita - the top rung of Italy's wine hierarchy. Only around 30 regions are at this level.
**Classico on Italian wine indicates that the grapes were grown and vinified in the centre of the region. In the case of Soave, this means around in and around Soave itself, and Monteforte d'Alpone.

Stumble It!