2022 Pieropan, Soave Classico DOC “La Rocca” Veneto, Italy.
It was great to taste through the oldest family-owned estate’s in Soave wines, Pieropan, which was founded back in 1880, oversees some of the most acclaimed and coveted vineyards in the region that sits between Lake Garda and the Veneto’s main hillside area, including this La Rocco cru that makes an exceptional white wine, as this 2022 version shows. In recent years I’ve been rediscovering Soave and am blown away with the quality here, in particular De Bruno, Inama, Prá and Pieropan, who’s last few year’s wines are excellent, with this La Rocca being one of the stars, showing a depth of texture, aromatics and mineral notes that make it extra compelling. This 2022 is a brilliant pale gold in the glass and starts with white blossoms, crushed rock, white peach and feels nice and balanced on the medium bodied palate, which adds a core of citrus, apple and melon fruit, a delicate spice, crisp acidity and a touch of wood plushness.The Pieropan legacy began, as the winery itself notes, in the late 1800s when their visionary winemaker Leonildo Pieropan purchased the historic Palazzo Pallucci in the medieval village of Soave and searching out top hillside vineyards. Today, the traditions carry on with Leonildo’s great-grandsons, Andrea and Dario, the winemaker, carry on the family’s patriarch’s vision making top quality Soave wines from all organically grown grapes. The family’s persistence in releasing single-vineyard Soave Classicos from select hillsides makes them leaders here, but honestly their base regional blend Soave Classico bottling is pretty darn good and tasty stuff too.
The La Rocca, which, as mentioned in my prior reviews, is the richest Soave in the Pieropan portfolio, and crafted exclusively from 100% Garganega grapes. La Rocca sits below a medieval castle on the Monte Rocchetta hill and is notably characterized by its calcareous like hardened clay soils, it’s at between 200-300 meters above sea level and, as Pieropan explains, encompassing several long, narrow terraces facing southwest, picking up the sun, but also getting a balancing cooling influence. The soil and climate at La Rocca, together with its other singular or distinct qualities, gives the wines a unique jasmine and or orange blossom perfume and the mentioned mineral tones. The aromatic and lengthy La Rocca Soave Classico DOC comes from 10 to 50 year old vines, set on those chalky clay soils that allows that richer dimension to show through, and it was indigenous yeast fermented and then aged 12 months on lees in a combination of larger format 500-2000L Slavonian oak barrels. Like I’ve mentioned before wineries like Pieropan have shown the world the true potential of the Garganega grape, crafting outstanding versions throughout their range. Historically, Soave has been a flexible food friendly wine, it goes fabulously well with many pasta dishes, soft cheeses, lighter poultry fare, with linguini and clams being an excellent pairing, while this more exotic and denser version being able to handle more robust cuisine. I got to run through this fabulous collection of Pieropan Soave wines at the Gambero Rosso Tre Bicchieri tasting event in San Francisco, all recognized as fantastic efforts and I was left wanting to visit the region as soon as possible!
($39 Est.) 94 Points, grapelive