Press Room

Press Office: Lucia Vesentini +39.328.4961031 - +39.045.7681578 - press@ilsoave.com

Sun,more sunshine: key factors in the ideal ripening of Garganega rain and then

The positive prospects for the 2006 vintage were confirmed in spite of some difficulties at the beginning of the growing cycle. That, in brief, is what emerges from the data collected by the Soave Producers’ Consortium regarding the season that has just ended. Based on the data that was registered, one can see that the fact that wintry temperatures continued well into spring caused a delay in bud burst of at least a week, while full development of the vegetation was arrested in late May and early June because of a sharp drop in temperature. The Garganega vines, then in the middle of flowering, suffered from this situation.
When the fruit did set, many of bunches were loosely packed, thus giving rise to excellent quality. Also, the consequential natural thinning of the bunches led to the vines having very well-balanced production.
This situation may be considered to be fairly generalized throughout the Soave zone, even if some areas (especially those at the bottom of hills, which were slightly better sheltered from the cold snap in spring) offered quite generous yields. The subsequent sunshine at the end of June and throughout July favoured ideal ripening of the grapes, combined with a lower-than-average number of sprayings against oidium (powdery mildew) and peronospora (downy mildew).
Some moments of concern were registered, especially regarding vineyards high up in the hills, because of the lack of rainfall towards the end of July. The onset of timely and well-distributed rain showers and the lowering of temperatures allowed the Garganega vines to undergo a perfect véraison and to make up for part of the delay in their vegetative development. As harvest approached, the vines were in the best possible physiological condition for facing the last crucial phase of ripening.
The numerous surveys and checks carried out by the Consortium’s technicians confirmed how growers this year have worked hard to control yields, through suitable cluster thinning, in those few vineyards that were in danger of not complying with the production limits set down in the D.O.C. regulations.
Given the above conditions, forecasts are for around 110 thousand hectolitres of Soave Classico, 350 thousand hectolitres of Soave D.O.C., 35 thousand of Soave Colli Scaligeri and 3 thousand hectolitres of Soave Superiore D.O.C.G. As far as Recioto di Soave D.O.C.G. is concerned, an increase is foreseen in the quantity of grapes set aside for drying and, considering the high quality of the fruit, this should be in the order of 700, 000 kilos of grapes, leading to the production of 1,400 hectolitres of wine.

2007 will be a great year for Soave: that’s what all the wine guides say

A shower of awards and commendations in the wine guides for Soave as it continues its ascent of Italy’s oenological peaks. Autumn is the season for the vintage, and also the season for awards. The principal wine guides have finally published their results, which confirm Soave’s position of leadership among Italy’s white wines, but with an important piece of news: 2007’s guides have registered an exponential increase in commendations  for Soave and in the number of award-winning local firms.
Here are the results:-

The 2007 Vini d’Italia (“Italian Wines”) guide,  published by Gambero Rosso and Slow Food, has awarded its prestigious “Three Glasses” to no less than seven Soaves, a result that is – for the first time ever – equal to that obtained by Amarone della Valpolicella.
“Three Glasses” ratings went to the following wines:

Soave D.O.C. Classico “Ca’ Visco” ’05 – Coffele
Soave D.O.C. Classico “Calvarino” ’04 – Leonildo Pieropan
Soave D.O.C. Classico “La Froscà” ’05 – Gini
Soave D.O.C. Classico “Le Bine” ’04 – Tamellini
Soave D.O.C. Classico “Monte Carbonare” ’05 – Suavia
Soave D.O.C. Classico “Monte Fiorentine” ’05 – Ca’ Rugate
Soave D.O.C. Classico “Monte Grande” ’05 – Prà

The Guida Vini d’Italia 2007 – Guide dell’Espresso on the other hand, rewarded five estates in the Soave denomination:

Soave D.O.C. Classico “Vigneto di Foscarino” ’04 – Inama
Soave D.O.C. Classico “Le Bine” ’04 – Tamellini
Soave D.O.C. Classico “Casette Foscarin” ’04 – Montetondo
Soave D.O.C. Classico “Le Rive” ’04 – Suavia
Soave D.O.C. Classico “La Rocca” ’04 – Pieropan

Six Soaves were crowned as Italy’s top wines by the Guida Vini Buoni d’Italia 2007 published by Touring Club Italiano and edited by Mario Busso, assisted by Luigi Cremona:

Soave D.O.C. “Borgoletto” 2005 – Fasoli Gino
Soave D.O.C. Classico “Il Roccolo” 2005 – Le Mandolare
Soave D.O.C. Classico “Staforte” 2004 – Prà
Soave D.O.C. Classico “Vin Soave” 2005 – Inama
Recioto di Soave D.O.C.G. Classico “Le Sponde” 2004 – Coffele
Recioto di Soave D.O.C.G. “Col Foscarin” 2004 – Gini

“Less oak, less body, a reduction in alcohol levels, better integration of packaging with the product:” maintains Aldo Lorenzoni, Director of the Consorzio di Tutela Vini Soave e Recioto di Soave “these are the fundamental parameters for eventually presenting a wine that respects and reflects its own nature, and which can simply be drunk – even without food – just for the pleasure of having a good glass to drink. This is the identikit of what a wine should be in 2007, and it corresponds entirely with Soave, which is now enjoyed across the board by consumers in and from all parts of the world”. The new trend in white wine drinking, then, is called Soave, and the most authoritative wine guides have recently  confirmed yet again this wine’s undeniable leading role within the Italian winemaking sector.

New taste trends highlight Soave’s qualities

Recent market trends show Soave to be the wine most suited to today’s consumer.
“Less wood, less body, reduction of the level of alcohol, appropriate packaging for the product, giving in the end a wine that is faithful to its own nature and that can even be enjoyed outside of the context of a meal. These are today’s new trends in wine drinking.”
These words are those of Luigi Odello, President of the Centro Studi Assaggiatori (Centre for Tasting Studies) and Professor of Sensorial Analysis at the Universities of Brescia, Piacenza, Verona and Udine, during the press conference to present the new Master’s Degree in “Wine Business and International Competition” launched by the University of Verona.
The way in which people drink wine has changed and every day producers are noting clear signs of a shift in tendencies. Luigi Odello has picked out the main characteristics of these changes and has identified the new stylistic profile of wine.
From the identikit he has drawn up, Soave emerges amongst white wines as representing the ideal solution, combining pleasant drinking and current compliance with drinking trends in the frenetic world of today. To be enjoyable, wines have to have above all less body, less concentration and less wood, which also means that they are less deeply coloured.
Another important factor is the strong comeback of white wines linked to specific areas, which can be directly associated with the grape varieties from which they are made.
Also, there is a preference for wines that go with lighter dishes and fit in with the rapid, and indeed sometimes frantic, rhythms of modern life. At the same time, consumers are appreciating a return to more restrained alcohol levels and to more honest labelling, with the alcohol level declared actually being that of the wine in the bottle. (In the past, the latter was previously often somewhat higher, in order to impress the consumer). It is time to call a halt, then, to wines that are only “for tasting” and return to the pleasures of quaffability and naturalness in a wine. Also, from the point of view of packaging, there is nowadays a call for greater coherence between the container and its contents.
More sober packaging is recommended, therefore, with labels that are clearer about a wine’s origin and its method of production. This portrait of a wine has, in short, the ideal characteristics of today’s Soave, expression of an important and historic denomination, which is indissolubly linked to the outstanding variety that is Garganega and to its volcanic terroir. Soave is a wine that, thanks to its faithfulness to its own distinctive characteristics, is also enjoying renewed success on what is probably the most difficult market: the Italian one. Soave continues to reap accolades from all the most prestigious wine guides, which agree in ascribing a leading role amongst Italian white wines to this denomination that, today, presents production figures which surpass any seen in the past.
This decidedly positive trend is also confirmed by the results of the monitoring and control activities carried out by the Consorzio di Tutela del Soave, which indicate that, in 2006, over 70 million bottles of Soave will have been sold (36 million in the first six months of 2006). Of strategic importance in this context has been the promotional activity of FEDERDOC, which has made an investment of around one million five hundred thousand Euros, alongside that of the various Producers’ Consortia, buying advertising space on the electric-powered Gullivers and other buses of the cities of Rome, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Florence and Bari, as well as promoting this campaign in the foreign press, amongst importers and in major distribution channels.