Veneto

Veneto whites: Soave, Lugana and Durella — the whites the world barely knows and that deserve so much more

The Veneto is Italy's highest-volume wine region — but behind the figures of industrial Pinot Grigio and aperitivo Prosecco hides a completely different Venice of white wine, made of volcanic hills, calcareous and basaltic soils, extremely rare indigenous varieties and artisan producers who work with a seriousness and dedication that the mass market neither knows nor tells. The Veneto produces some of the most original, most mineral and most long-lived Italian whites in existence — and almost nobody yet knows it well enough.

The protagonist is Soave — the Veneto's most widely known white appellation, one that for decades was synonymous with simple and commercial large-distribution white wine, and that over the past twenty years has experienced an extraordinary renaissance thanks to a generation of artisan producers who rediscovered Garganega — the indigenous Soave variety — in its most authentic and territorial expression. Artisan Soave, produced from pure Garganega on basaltic volcanic soils of the Soave hills at 200 to 500 metres altitude, is a completely different wine from industrial plains Soave — more mineral, more structured, more long-lived, with an aromatic complexity of white flowers, almond, citrus and chalky minerality that opens slowly and that in the finest Classico and Superiore versions can age magnificently for 5 to 10 years in bottle.

Soave Classico — produced in the historic original zone of the Soave hills, reserved exclusively for indigenous varieties on volcanic soils — is the Veneto's answer to Burgundy's Premiers Crus: historic parcels, low yields, pure or near-pure Garganega, careful ageing. Monte Carbonare by Suavia, Calvarino by Pieropan, Foscarino by Inama — names that sommeliers know and collectors seek, expressions of a great Italian white still far too undervalued relative to its actual quality.

But Veneto white wine is not only Soave. It is Lessini Durello — Italy's most acidic indigenous variety, cultivated on the Lessini hills between Verona and Vicenza on volcanic basaltic soils, producing both still whites of great freshness and minerality and vintage Metodo Classico of extraordinary complexity and longevity. Durella is the variety that very few know outside the Veneto — and that Emporio Divino presents as one of Italy's great oenological discoveries of the coming years, in its still version and in its Metodo Classico version with 48 months on lees that challenges the finest vintage Champagnes for quality and longevity.

There is Veneto Lugana — the portion of the appellation that develops on the Veronese shore of Lake Garda, where Turbiana on lacustrine clays produces whites of great structure and minerality. There is Bianco di Custoza — the little-known appellation south of Lake Garda, with blends of indigenous Veneto varieties producing fresh and sapid whites of great drinkability. There is Gambellara — Soave's neighbour, same Garganega variety on volcanic basalt soils, even more radical and mineral in its finest expressions.

And then there are the whites of the Valpolicella — the Soave Classico from producers like Corte Canella and Ilatium, who from the same winery as the Amarones and Recioto produce whites of great artisan character, expressions of a territory gifted not only for dried-grape reds but also for fresh and mineral whites.

Emporio Divino selects the white wines of the Veneto according to a precise criterion: genuine artisanship, indigenous varieties, volcanic and calcareous terroir, rejection of the industrial homogenisation that has penalised this extraordinary region for far too long. The white Veneto that deserves to be discovered — the one that Veronese people drink among themselves and that rarely travels beyond the region.